Prince Of The Hedges
by IronicScenario
Summary: AU "Prince of the hedges? You don't have any hedges." "Maybe I'll just rename you Prince of the weeds then!" Sasuke has no home nor job, so his logic consists of stalking a girl and becoming her uber hot gardener. Good idea? Not so much for said girl.
1. Chapter One: Prologue

**A/N:** Yo. I'm finally writing a story after I deleted all my others.

The pairing is of course SasuSaku (Sasuke and Sakura).

I've noticed that in most high school stories Sasuke is always the rich one and girls always fawn over him and nothing bad _ever_ happens to him. This time he'll have all of the fame and fortune, and it's going to get ripped out from under him. Yes I know I'm so evil, but I want this to be good. I hope it's original. And in most SasuSaku stories it's usually just based on Sakura's life. Now there's a lot to Sasuke too, but also heaps to Sakura.

Also, Sakura deals with Inner Sakura in her head usually, right? Now she deals with Inner Sakura every time she sees herself in a reflection. It helps Inner Sakura and her dastardly ways.

Anywho!

Summary: He was spoilt. He was rich. He was a player, and now… he's a gardener?? Kicked out of his own home, Sasuke comes across the Haruno Residence, finding food, shelter, a well-paying job and… the annoying pink-haired housemate. Now without his riches, he finally comes to realise that there is more to life than fast cars and wooing the ladies. – SasuSaku. Rated M for Language, Death and Violence.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Naruto Shippuden or any of these awesome characters. They belong to Kishi. However, I do own this story and this plot. No stealing.

Enjoy and Review if you want! And don't be afraid to give your thoughts on how you liked or disliked it. It may help me improve. If you're going to flame, at least have a sensible reason _why_. Or I'm going to go ape shit.

* * *

Prince Of The Hedges  
_Prologue_

* * *

Awkward Silences. Never a good sign.

Silences were not unusual in the Uchiha mansion, but since it was awkward… It was just strange. It's not like it bothered him or anything though. He just knew something was going to happen.

His father and his mother sat on the opposing lounge, seeming casual enough, but he could see the emotion in his mother's eyes. Sadness, confusion, acceptance. In his fathers, there was anger and frustration.

"Sasuke." Fugaku started firmly, staring his son straight in the eye. The Uchiha's were a brave family. They would not dare look away for it showed a sign of weakness. Sasuke knew this and followed by it without hesitation. Weakness was not an option. Failure was not an option.

Not for an Uchiha.

"Your Seventeenth birthday will be coming up soon, correct?"

He gave a slight nod, leaning back into the couch. He had a date with Karin that night. He didn't want his mood to be ruined even more by his father. He was gloomy enough as it was.

Karin was pretty, but she was also a complete _bitch_.

Everyone knew that, yet everyone still wanted her. For Sasuke, Karin was just for his reputation. A mere tool. She knew that, too.

But he was good-looking, rich, and popular. He had a car; a motorbike, a boat…and most importantly, he had contacts. If someone was annoying her, if there was someone she didn't like… Let's just say that that person wouldn't be in town for much longer.

Seriously, Why _wouldn't_ she go out with him?

The entire female population wanted him. The entire male population wanted to be him.

Life was good for Uchiha Sasuke.

So far.

Fugaku interrupted his thoughts, "When you are Seventeen, We are going to kick you out."

It was a shock. An ice-cold stab to the heart.

His expression did not change, although his skin colour visibly turned a shade paler, and his eyes had a brief glimmer of panic. He quickly hid any surprise, and narrowed his eyes to show that he was irritated.

"You won't."

"Sasuke-Kun!" It was his mother, Mikoto, now. Her voice was cracking, but she kept speaking even on the verge of tears. "You need to understand what you're doing. We spoil you and we can't help it because you're our son and we love you. All you do is… is go to Karin's house. You skip school, you don't have a job, you barely talk to us, I'm afraid that you've done incredibly disgusting things with Karin when you've only been dating her for… a few weeks!? You only come downstairs to eat and stay in your room all the other times unless you're out. You sneak out of the house at night, you go to parties that supply alcohol! You're sixteen and we've had to bail you out of juvy _twice _already!"

Sasuke simply grunted and folded his arms.

It was Fugaku's turn again. "We have thought long and hard about this, your mother and I, and we believe it is the right choice. You need to learn to grow up, and staying with us will not help."

"I'm going to work under you."

"We don't need you, and you already know it. We have Itachi."

Sasuke paused, his facial expression resembling a blank page. His face showed nothing. No Anger, No Happiness. He was considering what his father had just said.

This did not last long though.

Suddenly, in a split instant, he was on his feet, eyes narrowed dangerously and his lips curled back into a snarl. He launched his arm out, knocking the glass coffee table over which was blocking Sasuke from his parents, and breaking the porcelain vase filled with bright red roses.

Mikoto screamed and covered her face at the sudden outburst, Fugaku standing protectively in front of her with a glare on his own face, ready to fight back with his younger son.

But Sasuke did not attack.

Instead, he balled his hands up in fists, his glare intensifying.

His voice was low and threatening, almost feral. "_Fuck __Itachi_." And stormed out of the living room, purposely treading on the roses, which lay crumpled on the floor, leaving his mother sobbing and his Father frozen in place.

What more could they possibly do for their broken son?

* * *

On the other side of town, a young woman stood in the bathroom, examining herself and her flaws in the mirror.

The figure that stared back at her rolled her eyes and spoke loudly, her voice wavering in a way that it felt like a dream, or an echo, if you payed close attention.

"Stop looking at us you brat. We have to deal feeling this way all the time. It makes it worse to see ourselves so ugly."

The woman stared back at herself, "Hey, Who said you could speak? You're not even real. Just a figment of my imagination."

Her reflection snickered, "Believe what you will silly! But I'm apart of you, nevertheless, so you'll have to deal with me talking to you every so often."

"Uh-Huh." She raked a hand through short pink locks, continuing to stare at herself – or her other self's – appearance.

"You know, Outer, staring at us all day won't make our breasts grow any bigger."

"Are you just bent on being crude or are you the bitchy part of my mind?"

"Probably both", the figure admitted and grinned, "Now say goodbye to Mama and Papa or you'll be late for school you pink fuzz ball."

The young woman sighed and ran out quickly, snagging her red bag on the way. She ran half way down the steps and jumped the other five, landing straight on her butt.

Muttering incoherent curses she scrambled up onto her feet and poked her head into the lounge room.

A small shrine stood in front of the old, unusable fireplace, decorated with different things like some car keys, a scarf and a hat and other items.

In front of the shrine were two pictures. The first one a man, the other a woman.

"Bye Papa, Mama! I'll be back after school!" And left the house in a hurry.

The small household was left empty of people, the only life inside being an almost faded memory.

* * *

_Two broken people,_

_Will come together as halves,_

_So they can finally become whole._

* * *

**A/N:** All right, done the prologue! Nothing fancy.

I'm not too happy on how this started out, but whatever. Maybe others will like it?

Since the first part of this story is about Sasuke, I made the prologue more to do with him, and as you can see I didn't mention Sakura's name even though it's already plainly obvious that it is her by her Inner, and her hair colour, but I done that because you're supposed to be more focused on Sasuke at this point, but still interested in what's going on with Sakura.

YES I do realise Sakura's mother is alive in the anime and possibly her father too. I KNOW in the anime she is supposed to be the only one with a family in the team.

But you have no information in Shippuden whether they are alive or not, and since they're like 16-17 in this fic it'd be around the time of Shippuden so there, her parents are dead. Wah-Lah!

As you see above I put that thingy-magig in italics. It's basically summarising the story plot (although I have a different summary for the actual story) and you'll see how this unfolds throughout the story since I like this plot and I want to continue it.

Sorry if nobody likes how much of a jerk Sasuke is acting. He'll get better, I promise!

Please Review if you like it ^_^


	2. Chapter Two: A Birthday To Remember

**A/N:** Okay, Howdy! This is the actual first chapter.

I just want everybody to know that this entire story isn't going to be basically:

_Love. Hate. Sadness. Drama. Hurt. Comfort. Death. Seriousness. Agro People. Emo Sasuke. Emo Sakura. _No. I hate stories that revolve around sadness and drama. Yes I know that the genres are Romance and Hurt/Comfort, but if I could choose a third genre it would be humour.

I do tend to be a little silly with my stories so once everything's settled down, we'll get to the fun stuff!

A lot of it will still be serious if you like serious stuff though. So the three Genres are Romance, Hurt/Comfort and Humour.

Just getting that clear.

Also, the main part of this Authors Note: Reviews would be well… nice! And Feedback would be just plain awesome.

**Summary:** He was spoilt. He was rich. He was a player, and now… he's a gardener?? Kicked out of his own home, Sasuke comes across the Haruno Residence, finding food, shelter, a well-paying job and… the annoying pink-haired housemate. Now without his riches, he finally comes to realise that there is more to life than fast cars and wooing the ladies. – SasuSaku. Rated M for Language, Death and Violence.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto or Naruto Shippuden or any of these awesome characters. They belong to Kishi. However, I do own this story and this plot. No stealing.

* * *

_Last Chapter: _

"_Probably both", the figure admitted and grinned, "Now say goodbye to Mama and Papa or you'll be late for school you pink fuzz ball."_

_The young woman sighed and ran out quickly, snagging her red bag on the way. She ran half way down the steps and jumped the other five, landing straight on her butt._

_Muttering incoherent curses she scrambled up onto her feet and poked her head into the lounge room._

_A small shrine stood in front of the old, unusable fireplace, decorated with different things like some car keys, a scarf and a hat and other items._

_In front of the shrine were two pictures. The first one a man, the other a woman._

"_Bye Papa, Mama! I'll be back after school!" And left the house in a hurry._

_The small household was left empty of people, the only life inside being an almost faded memory._

* * *

Prince Of The Hedges

_Chapter Two: A Birthday To Remember_

* * *

Saturday morning.

The air was hot to a point where you would have to walk around shirtless and still sweat like a pig.

Summer was just _fantastic_.

Sasuke ran a hand through his unkempt raven hair and slung a bag strap over his shoulder, holding the other in his hand.

He walked out the front door, kicking it shut behind him and started to make his way down the large… and _looooong _driveway.

No one bid him farewell.

His mother was still frightened of the incident that had happened only a few days before. She still managed a smile in front of her younger son, although it was a little shaky, which was why she _could_ not face him leave. Why she _would_ not.

His father, on the other hand, could only glare when they were face to face. Other than that, his father chose to avoid him at all costs.

His brother – Itachi – Was on a business trip and didn't know his younger brother had been kicked out. Sasuke believed that he would be informed very soon.

Mikoto had given him money, being the gentle-hearted one. She still loved him of course, but the events of that day had caused her fragile self to weaken mentally.

Fugaku had warned her to stay away from their son until he had left, but she could do no such thing.

Sasuke had heard this the day before, while they argued in the kitchen.

Swiftly and nonchalantly he had walked through the door, making his presence known and interrupting his father bitch about him, and grabbed the bottle of coke out from the fridge. He had drunk some right from the bottle instead of getting a cup, refusing eye contact and put it back, exiting out, leaving his parents agape.

He could almost smirk at his rude exterior.

Although, Sasuke was human, so he _may_ have felt a slight pang in his heart, realising his mother was still going out of her way to help him, but he shoved it into the back of his mind, taking it as she just wanted him out of the house quicker, so he gave the money back as soon as she handed it over.

He stared up at the flaming sun, high up in the sky, stalking him every step he took.

What made this all worse was that he didn't have any transportation, because his car and motorbike had been bought out of Fugaku's money. His asshole of a father had taken them back – and sold them.

"Prick", He muttered to himself, glaring at the path ahead of him, and any girl that dared to check him out.

It was just so different. He had never saved any money on Birthday's or Christmas – He had just spent it on electronics and games and possibly some alcohol. Maybe on the girlfriends he had at those times, too.

Sasuke may have regret not keeping the money his mother gave him, although he would never admit that out loud.

The obsidian-eyed male was annoyed, obviously. Pondering on the situation only made him more annoyed.

'_I can't afford school, and University is now out of the question. I'll have to get a job,' _He paused in his thoughts,_ 'Speaking of which…'_

Sasuke looked around at his surroundings, noticing that he was finally in town.

If he could work in a hotel of some sort, maybe the owner would be generous and let him stay for free.

Pretty pathetic, huh?

Sasuke shrugged off the feeling of emptiness and solitude inside of him, made sure he still had _two _bags full of clothes, and headed to the nearest hotel, ready to be a businessman if the owner happened to be a man, and worked on his charm if the owner just so happened to be a woman.

* * *

A loud banging erupted from downstairs, screaming insults about foreheads and pink hair.

"FOREHEAD-GIRL! GET YOUR SMELLY BUTT UP! WE'RE GOING SHOPPING TO GET SEXY OUTFITS AND THEN GET YOU LAID BECAUSE YOU'RE A CRANKY CHICKADEE WITH PINK HAIR!"

The rosette sat up in her bed quickly, screaming and holding a hand to her heart. She held her breath and waited for a few seconds in silence. After a while, she breathed out again and let out a sigh of relief.

"Thank god…" She muttered to herself, stretching a little. "I had the most horrible dream that Ino came over and woke me up and said she was going to dress me like a slut and get me la-"

"OPEN THE GOD DAMN DOOR NOW, SAKURA!!!"

"I suppose I spoke too soon…" She frowned and stood up, making her way downstairs and opening the door.

A curvy girl with long blonde hair stood in front of Sakura, hands on hips and looking very annoyed.

"What's up your bum?" Sakura asked, lazily leaning against the doorframe.

She had gone to bed too late that night. Maybe watching sad and romantic movies while having four packets of chocolate and a huge bowl of popcorn and staying up until about three in the morning wasn't such a great idea after all. Not only that, but she also felt bloated and she swore she could feel a stinking pimple growing on her forehead.

Life was cruel.

"What's up my bum?! WHAT'S UP MY BUM!?!? I'LL TELL YOU WHAT'S UP MY BUM, HARUNO SAKURA!!"

Sakura stared blankly and yawned, answering nonchalantly, "Go on then, Pig."

"I CALLED YOU FIVE TIMES THIS MORNING AND LEFT TEN MESSAGES AND YOU DIDN'T REPLY TO _ANY_ OF THEM!!"

Sakura backed away into the house, Ino right on her heels.

She walked into the kitchen and saw her mobile phone flashing and started laughing nervously at a very pissed off Yamanaka Ino.

_Now_ she was getting afraid of the blonde's sour mood.

"Well it's still fairly early, Ino! You can find someone else to go with!" She offered, hoping her friend would leave it at that.

"It's twelve in the afternoon, Billboard-Brow," Ino sighed and rested back on the counter. "Pleaaaaaseeeee come to the mall with me! Hinata has Judo with Neji… TenTen went too and Temari lives out of town... and I don't even like Temari! You're my last option!"

Sakura groaned agitatedly, "Happy happy joy joy. You just don't like Temari because she's going out with Shikamaru. She's nice once you get to know her."

"Pfft!" Ino rolled her baby blues, "She's a total bitch. You remember in Grade Six when she _totally_ stole my wallet."

"No…she found your wallet that you dropped in the change rooms after P.E and she gave it back to you."

"Ugh! Whatever. Go get dressed and do something about that pimple. It's staring at me," Ino shooed her off, annoyed that her friend was such a smart arse.

Sakura sighed and walked upstairs into her room while Ino _innocently_ played with her phone without asking.

She slid her pyjamas and undergarments off and walked into the bathroom, ready to cleanse and rid herself of germs.

This was most _definitely_ going to be a long day.

* * *

Sasuke stormed out of the hotel, glaring at anyone and everyone, making them either quiver in fright or excitement.

Fucking Fangirls.

This was the third hotel he had been to, and there was no such luck.

The first owner was a man, and he wasn't looking for work at that time.

The second owner was a woman, and his charm didn't work on her because she was half passed out holding a bottle of Sake. (**A/N:** If anyone thought _Tsunade!_ Shame on you. It's not Tsunade.)

The hotel Sasuke just walked out of – The third one – was owned by a man too, except a business-like worker wasn't what he wanted. This man just so happened to be a homosexual, and wanted Sasuke to stay with him in _his_ room and_ his_ bed.

Sasuke pressed his lips together as he walked as far away from the hotel as possible, trying not to vomit.

When did everything go so downhill?

Oh, right.

_Three Days Ago._

_Three Days Before His Birthday._

_Three Days Before _Today.

He had nowhere to go so he just wandered aimlessly along the streets of Konoha, not caring the slightest if someone he knew saw him strolling around with two bags full of clothes.

Sasuke did care for his reputation, which was why he was going out with Karin to keep his _'dreamy playboy' _title up, but at this moment, he wasn't in a good enough mood to even consider it.

He was angry.

No… not angry.

He was _pissed off!_

_Extremely_ pissed off.

And no one wanted to see an Uchiha Male pissed off.

What kind of birthday present was putting your kid on the street?!

Well, he didn't celebrate birthdays anyway, so I suppose that's why they didn't kick him out on the street the day _after_ his birthday.

Not that that would have made it any better, but who knows, right?

Sasuke finally stopped, realising that he was standing out the front of a mall.

He knew this mall, of course, since Konoha only had _one_ mall, but he went there often with his 'friends'.

Could he really call those people – people who only wanted his money, people who only wanted sex – friends?

Maybe that was just what friends were nowadays. Just people that you sat with so you wouldn't be left alone throughout your school years.

You really could never trust anyone. On the Internet everyone is a paedophile. In real life everyone just wants money and sex. Not even in his imagination were there any decent people.

The cause of that could quite possibly be that Uchiha Sasuke just didn't have an imagination, but he could not picture a person that just loved. He could not picture a person that did not want sex or money. He could not picture someone that loved another that was incredibly ugly or poor.

It was just so humane to be so evil.

The world was such a judgemental place.

While pondering on his thoughts, Sasuke found himself subconsciously wandering into the mall, ignoring all the lovey-dovey and jealous stares coming from different people.

Oh, he was so adored even as a hobo, which was quite degrading for an Uchiha, but the important thing was his reputation hadn't been ruined, right?

After Thirty Minutes of being in the mall, he had charmed his way into getting a drink and a burger for free from the young girl at the McDonalds register.

'_Idiotic Fangirl,'_ He snickered whilst walking away, giving her a few Irish hand- gestures on the way out of the food court.

He could hear her sobbing two floors above.

What finally made him stop snickering at the girls crying was the screaming coming not so far away from him.

Letting his curious instincts take over because there was nothing else to do, he started walking over to the muffled screaming and shouting, bags in tow.

When he rounded the corner, all he saw was a flash of pink and red before being slammed into the ground, knocking the breath out of him, and **almost** making him squeal like a little girl when a knee collided hard against his crotch.

_Happy Fucking Birthday all right._

* * *

"…And then I was like No way! And she was like Yes way! And I was like No way! And she was like yes way! And I was li-"

"SHUT THE HELL UP, PIG!"

Ino ignored her best friend, tugging her to the mall in a death-like-grip, continuing to babble on about something incredibly non-important.

Sakura had _seriously_ tried to listen, but once Ino started talking, she literally _did not stop._

Stupid hyperactive blonde.

That reminded her of Naruto, but he was slightly less tolerable.

The guy had ramen on his insignificant and puny brain twenty-four-seven, and he spoke so loud that he actually made some kid get a hearing aid.

Unfortunately for the kid, it was hilarious when he started jumping up and down screaming, _"OMIGOD! I'M DEAF! WHAT THE HELL DID THAT PSYCHO DO TO ME?! DID MY EAR BLOW OFF OR SOMETHING?! WHAT'S GOING ON? WHAT?! CAN YOU REPEAT THAT?"_

Ahh, good times… especially since Naruto had to pay for the hearing aid.

'_Sucker'_, She quietly snickered to herself.

Sakura closed her eyes while Ino dragged her along, hoping that she wouldn't make her walk into a pole.

Really, what could she say about her friends? They were _different._

Her group at school wasn't stereotypical, which was good, because everyone in her group was completely different and random in their own little way, although she put everyone in a stereotype in her _Friend Log _for the fun of it.

Ah, yes. Her _Friend Log_.

The _Friend Log_ was a tattered old book with a red velvet case which had gold carvings imprinted into it. If you saw it, you would ultimately think _DIARY!_ But instead of complaining about her life to a stack of papers with a cover on it, she wrote about all of her friends.

Each of her friends had their own five pages so she could keep adding things in, even after so many years, and she felt overjoyed that her book was almost getting full.

Of course, she loved the book, but soon the book would be full, and she would feel like she had so many and such interesting friends, and eventually she would get a new book to fill up again.

Sakura loved her _Friend Log_. Before Ino, that book was what kept her sane.

She would write of all her toys and her parents when she was young, and when she finally did meet Ino, she was excited to write about a different person.

In Primary School, she met Naruto and wrote about him too, and met more of her friends.

In High School, four more people joined the group, and TenTen, Neji, Lee and Sai were added to the list.

For three years, her book had gained more and more comments about her friends, but no new friend to add.

They were now in first term of Year Eleven, and she still had no one to add.

It was a pity, really, since she loved meeting new people.

Hopefully she would be able to add a new person into the _Friend Log_ soon.

She opened her eyes as she was pulled past a window, where her reflection rolled her eyes and snickered,

"Who would want to become friends with us?"

Sakura rolled her eyes in return, _'Quite possibly the friends we already have, idiot!'_

Her Inner Self just ignored her after that, having no intelligent response.

Before she knew it, they were at the mall, with Ino almost spontaneously combusting at the sight of new clothes.

Sakura was pulled throughout different levels, being forced into changing rooms and carrying items along the way.

Sakura – being a girl – enjoyed shopping, of course. The only girl in their group that disliked shopping was TenTen, but everyone knew that TenTen was a little bit of a tomboy. Her opposite was Ino.

Ino loved to shop. Shopping was Ino's favourite hobby besides Flower Arrangement and Boys. Yes. Boys were one of Ino's hobbies. _Ugh._

If anyone were to know the who-how on clothes, Ino would be your girl.

But the thing was… Sakura hated the sight of clothes when Ino was around.

When you went shopping with Ino you were there to carry the shopping bags, you were forced to try on extremely frilly pink things or mini… mini… tight… and mini… dresses, and you weren't allowed to eat McDonalds because; _'It goes straight to my thighs,'_ Quoted from none other than Yamanaka Ino herself.

More like it went straight to her **boobs.**

Worst of all, Ino spent the rest of her time chatting up guys.

Sakura liked guys, but she didn't really find talking to random men at the mall very enjoyable or appealing, especially if they reeked of alcohol and cigarettes.

Well, at least Ino seemed to get a kick out of it, but Sakura had a strict _No Alcohol _policy.

She didn't like drugs, she didn't like cigarettes, she obviously didn't like alcohol and she wouldn't let anyone in her house that had any of those three things.

Especially since alcohol was what caused-

"Oh! Look what we have here, girls! Forehead-Girl and Little Miss Piggy decided to come shopping to make themselves **sexy**. Yeah, _right,_" called a loud, screeching voice that resembled the sound of nails on a chalkboard.

The rosette and blonde turned around and were face to face with evil.

In proper terms, Karin and her league of tramps, with many shopping bags in tow. Karin wasn't carrying any.

Sakura instantly assumed the Twenty-Four bags her tramps were carrying were all hers.

The 'evil' one spoke again, but with even more amusement in her voice, "And that huge forehead has an accessory since the last time I saw it!"

Sakura instantly covered her forehead, knowing she was talking about the pimple.

Curse that darn chocolate!

Karin was like Ino, but more bitchy, threatening, rich, and her breasts were probably fake.

This woman had always been around Sakura and Ino. She would tease Sakura endlessly about different things, but it usually just revolved around how big her forehead was.

When Ino stood up for her, she was brought back down when Karin and her posse insulted them and hurt their reputation as years went by.

Now with a bigger group, Karin only teased them when they were alone, but now Seventeen and Sixteen, they were much stronger, and had snapped back at Karin a few times before.

What sucked though was how popular Karin was, and that she had some rich boyfriend that could kick both of their asses easily.

And to add to that list, she was _drop dead gorgeous._

Karin had a clean diamond-shaped face, obsidian eyes standing out behind thin-rimmed glasses. She once had black hair, but eventually dyed it a deep red because _apparently _that was her boyfriend's favourite colour.

It was long and had a lot of shape, and it framed her face very nicely, much to Sakura's disappointment.

To cut it short, she had huge breasts, a sexy butt, and she had done **everything **humanely and **sexually** possible by Year Five in School.

Today Karin was wearing almost nothing, like usual.

Well, she couldn't blame Karin for wearing that. It was extremely hot outside, but she _could_ blame Karin for making every guy that walked past get slightly hotter. (**A/N: **As in she's made them horny. They don't magically get sexy every time they walk past Karin.)

Ino grimly stared at Karin, obviously annoyed that her shopping day was ruined by her nemesis, "Just shut your mouth Karin, before my foot just so happens to kick you in the face."

Karin smirked, flicking her hair over her bare shoulder, "Just an excuse to flash everyone, you slut. No one wants to see your panties."

Ino glared and was about to scream extremely Non-PG Rated words at her when Sakura cut in, annoyed by the childishness.

"Alright, both of you can stop bickering. Hello Karin, it was just _brilliant _to see you," She spoke, adding a sarcastic emphasis to 'Brilliant', "But we ought to get going and continue our shopping spree while you continue yours. See you."

She grabbed Ino by the arm and tugged her away as quickly as she could, knowing Karin would not let it drop that easy.

After all, Karin was Karin. She liked being a 'rebel'.

Failure much.

"Is that how you handle everything, Sa-Ku-Ra? Just walk away? You can't walk away from your parent's death. After all, it was _your_ fault!" The red head taunted, feet planted.

She wasn't going to back down. She was definitely going to make these two have a horrible day. It was what Karin did best; of course, besides that one thing she did with her tongue…

Sakura had stopped, and now it was Ino's turn to try to get her to walk away.

Ino knew better than anyone how sensitive her best friend got at the mention of her parent's death. Either she would burst into tears or go skitzo.

At this moment, Ino believed she would go skitzo.

_Majorly_ skitzo.

Ino's hold on her arm was effortlessly pulled from, and Sakura turned around to face Karin, Sea-Foam green eyes narrowed, which twinkled in a very dangerous manner.

Besides the threatening eyes, she seemed very calm, but whoever knew Sakura well enough, knew that this was bad. This was worse than if she was screaming profanities at everyone whilst carrying a machine gun and holding someone hostage at the same time with a machete to their neck.

Inside, Sakura's blood was boiling, and it took all her will not to claw her opponent's throat out.

Surprising everyone, she let out a low chuckle that sent shivers down all spines, even her own.

"Say it again," Sakura stopped for a moment, watching Karin's expression, but then continued on menacingly, "I **dare **you to say it again as boldly as you did before and we will _definitely _see what happens."

_Now_ Karin was over-thinking what she had just gotten herself into, but she immediately shook the thought away.

She was _Karin_ for Pete sakes! She was too stubborn to back down. Especially to Billboard-Brow of all people.

Karin smirked again, fearless and bold, hands on hips, chest thrusted out, "It's your fault that your parents are dead. Stop walking away from it, coward!"

More like fearless and _stupid._

And then she was thrown against the ground; head colliding hard onto the cold marble.

Her head throbbed and she couldn't breath from being winded by the girl on top of her who was throwing uncontrolled strikes to her precious face.

Her glasses had been thrown off and one of her tramps had _accidentally_ stepped on them.

_Now _**Karin** was _pissed._

She grabbed both of Sakura's arms and rolled them over so she was on top, slamming a knee into her gut and decided to let one of her arms go so she could slap her across the face.

Both girls were winded but they continued to fight nonetheless, ignoring the people crowd around and film.

Youtube was going to love that.

In an instant, Sakura had lifted them both up and started punching Karin continuously in the stomach, holding her in place so she couldn't fall back or fall down.

Blood stained the floor from open wounds and the coughing of blood.

The redhead gained some more of her strength, lifting a long, slender leg up and kicking her rival across the head. It wasn't too hard; after all, Sakura was pretty short.

Sakura let out a cry of pain and flew back down onto the ground, surprised at the force that Karin could muster.

She sure could put up a fight when she wanted to.

Struggling to get up, Sakura glanced over and saw that Karin's league of tramps were holding Ino back so she couldn't join in the fight.

Either they were worried for Karin getting smashed by two girls or they didn't think it was smart for Ino to go out and get bashed while their Queen-bee was angry.

That was fine, Sakura mused to herself, She wanted to put Karin in her place anyway.

She lifted herself up, turning to the other female, who was weakly grinning and holding her stomach.

They weren't all that beat up, but they were only human. There was only so much a teenage girl could take in a day!

"What the heck are you grinning at, bitch?" Sakura asked through gritted teeth, finally regaining proper balance. Green eyes carefully observed, looking at major injuries, noting the strengths and the weaknesses.

Karin seemed to be more speed than strength, and Sakura was pretty strong for her age. It was almost inhuman, which scared a few people. Mostly Naruto who got to witness her fist clearer than anyone else.

Poor little Naruto.

Karin finally let go of her stomach and stood straight, lips curving triumphantly, even as blood seeped out of her mouth and down to her chin where it dripped off and stained her top and the floor.

And with one word she answered that question.

"_Weak."_

It slammed into Sakura hard, stopping her breathing and making her stiff.

Weak? _Weak? Weak!?_

Sakura _hated_ that word. She _hated_ that word with a goddamn passion.

Without realising it, her fists had started to clench and unclench, her eyes now in shadow as her head tilted downwards so she was facing the floor.

Was she really weak? There was a good chance that she was… since Karin hadn't been defeated.

But… if she could win this fight… if she could just prove to Karin that she wasn't… then maybe all the pain… all the suffering… maybe it would stop.

Maybe Karin would grow up and realise the effects of her harsh words really caused such tremendous amounts of sorrow.

Maybe…

She raised a thin, pink eyebrow, "Well, we'll see after the fight then, won't we, Karin?"

The redhead just rolled her eyes, and started walking towards Sakura.

Without her glasses, she was at a disadvantage, but she could still make out where she was. She wasn't _completely _useless without her glasses.

Thanks to Sakura's ugly pink head it was actually quite easy to see her. It was so vibrant and lively.

It made her want to throw up.

Sakura had started walking too without her realising.

They both met at the middle, braced themselves for the worst… and…

…Started swatting their arms in the air at one another, hands slapping the others hands in a rushed manner, heads turned away to avoid getting hit.

This was definitely cat fighting to the max.

Sakura and Karin screamed in what seemed to be battle cries, and tore at clothes and tugged at stands of hair.

They grabbed onto everything and anything and pulled and scratched and even resulted in _biting_ to gain the upper hand.

The Obsidian-eyed woman suddenly tackled her foe, seeing an opening, throwing them both through the crowd of watchers – and collided straight into a strangely familiar young man.

Sakura definitely felt the pain as soon as they had stopped moving, especially when she was being sandwiched into the chest of some random whilst Karin was on her back. Her fake breasts added to the weight.

She heard a soft groan from the person underneath her, and hesitantly opened her eyes to see who would be yelling their face off at her that afternoon.

Her heart fluttered and the rest of her body felt like mush in an instant. Strangely, it was suddenly very hot and she could feel her face heating up – even against her struggles to suppress it.

There was no way that she was blushing over… over this guy she didn't even know? That was _major _fangirlism! And Haruno Sakura most _certainly_ was **not** a **fangirl!**

But she couldn't deny the fact that the man was extremely good-looking.

He was absolutely gorgeous, really.

The man had beautiful pale skin that wouldn't burn from the harsh sunlight, with spiky ebony locks that fell around his face in a mess – but in an attractive way.

And when that man opened his eyes, her heart started to beat fast and she felt ready to spontaneously combust.

Those deep, black orbs bore into her soul, making her heart beat harder against her chest. He was an absolutely stunning _god._ If she actually _were_ a fangirl, she would so tap t-

"Get off," A deep voice spoke from his lips, interrupting her train of crude thoughts, "_Now._"

She shuddered, feeling his voice rumble through his chest so that she could feel it. What was strange though was that his voice sounded quite weak and raspy… as if he was winded. Maybe he was, she thought, and tried to get to get off of him but to no avail.

She was squashed tight against the guy.

"Karin," Sakura seethed, wiggling around a little, oblivious to the male below her hissing in pain as her knee continued to destroy his manhood, "Get up fat ass."

Karin smacked the back of her pink head and laughed, "No way! I win! And I score a sexy hunk of meat…- Oh! Sasuke-Kun!"

She jumped off quickly, _literally _throwing Sakura off. She bent down and pulled the man up quickly and glomping him over-enthusiastically. "I'm sorry, Sasuke-Kun! I didn't know that was you! Are you hurt? Did that fatso squash you??"

Sasuke ignored her questions and shoved her off without any remorse, picking up his bags.

Right now he believed he had no penis since he now couldn't feel it, so he was in a dreadful mood. He didn't even grunt at her like he usually did.

He didn't – and wouldn't – spare a glance at the other woman who helped in killing what made him a man. His rage would most surely get the best of him if he did such an unnecessary act. After all, he was an Uchiha.

Why the hell would _he_ look at someone as poor class as that woman that lay metres away, struggling to stand? A despicable act that would be, indeed.

Even if he did get kicked out, he would not become _that_ low.

Albeit his thoughts, he watched her pick herself up off the ground and curse, rubbing her scratched arms that would surely bruise in a matter of hours.

Sasuke turned his head back at his girlfriend, who was pouting her lower lip in an attempt to be cute. She would bruise all over, also.

But – because she was still his girlfriend – he rested a finger underneath her chin, tilting her head up ever so slightly.

"Explain," was all he said, and she ever so happily filled in the details.

"Well, Sasuke-Kun! It all started when I walked into the mall with my friends, minding my own business when _she," _Karin gestured over to Sakura, emphasising the 'she' with disgust, "walked over and started harassing me for no reason at all!"

Sakura gaped and glared, storming over, fists clenched, "Don't you dare blame me for this! You stormed over and started pissing Ino and I off! You do this all the god damn time so stop whinging to your friend that I started harassing _you _because everyone in the fucking world knows that you're a complete-"

She was cut short when Sasuke's icy glare turned on her, making her blood run cold and her body freeze. There was no point in denying that he had a terrifying glare. It almost made her pee her pants when he spoke.

"Stop being a hypocrite. You're harassing her right now. I'd rather you not yell at my girlfriend that way."

Sakura stared blankly, watching as his arm indifferently wrapped around Karin's shoulders. Karin's expression was smug, as usual.

_This _was Karin's boyfriend? It was just… so… unexpected that a guy like _this _went for as someone as bitchy as Karin.

She was bewildered, to say the least, but she nodded dumbly anyway, just so he wouldn't get even more peeved.

Sasuke stared intensely. He could just feel the fear on her, so he lessened his expression a little. He didn't want to make some little girl make a mess – especially right in front of him.

"Your name…?" He asked her, but still in a half-threatening manner so Karin wouldn't think he was trying to crack on to this woman. As if he would, anyway. He would never think of a commoner like that.

Sakura fluttered her eyelashes in surprise and stuttered a little, speaking in a softer voice, "H-Haruno Sakura…"

He nodded once and turned him and Karin around, starting to lead her away, "Well, _Sakura…" _Her name rolled off of his tongue voluptuously, her face bashfully flushing at how her name sounded with his voice,

"…Nice pimple," And he strode off on his high horse, Karin and bags in tow.

Sakura just screamed.

* * *

"I was kicked out," Sasuke informed her, eyes never leaving the sidewalk. It was seriously bad for him to tell this to Karin of all people, but he had to stay somewhere.

Even if she would try to have her way with him during the night.

"Oh, Sasuke-Kun! That's horrible… but it's okay! You can stay with me! It'll be fun… for the both of us," she winked seductively, flicking some hair over her shoulder.

The rest of the trip to her place was silent, but what kept popping up into the back of his head was the pink-haired girl he spoke to before.

Never had he seen someone snap back at one of Karin's lies.

Of course Sasuke knew Karin was lying. She always did. She wasn't an innocent person like her family knew her.

That woman… no, Haruno Sakura, had a lot of guts – especially to actually _fight _Karin.

Any normal person would cower in fear and run away.

Perhaps this Sakura was used to Karin's crap and finally decided to stand up for herself?

Sasuke studied Karin thoughtfully, noticing all of the marks from being hit. She had even lost her glasses, so he had to hold her hand so a car didn't hit her when they walked across a road.

Joy.

He smirked to himself, remembering how he teased Sakura about the pimple on her forehead. It was barely noticeable, but he knew – just because she was a girl – that she would get angry about it.

He had heard her scream in frustration even after they had rounded the corner and descended down the escalator.

Sasuke didn't know why, but it was different - that girl. She had blushed and stuttered, but she didn't try to jump him, she hadn't made any moves. Honestly, he thought that he just intimidated her was all.

And that was a really strange thing.

He shrugged to himself and led his girlfriend into her house, closing the door behind them.

In a jiffy she had a new pair of glasses, and then she was ravishing his mouth on the couch.

How this had happened, he didn't know, but what he did know was that this was a pretty crap birthday, and seeing Karin naked was not on his birthday list.

So he shut his eyes and rolled her off to fall on the floor, not caring that she yelped in pain.

He rose from the couch, ignored her puppy-pout and walked into the bathroom, mentally repeating the lyrics of _Happy Birthday _to ease his mind.

Somberly, he stood under the freezing water and glared.

He glared because of his family.

He glared because of the business.

He glared because of the things he lost.

He glared because of Karin.

He glared because of Haruno Sakura.

And most importantly, he glared at himself, because he had ruined everything.

So he glared at the wall until his eyes gleamed blood red, and he continued to do so until a tear slid down his beautiful pale cheek.

The anger finally disappeared once he realised his vision was blurred from tears instead of water, and the hatred that was kept inside of him was washed away along with the icy water that cleansed him.

After all, he was still just a little boy in the body of a young man.

* * *

**A/N: **Oh my god… it… is done…

This took ages to write, basically because the start was boring without any SasuSaku crap.

First of all, if no one knows what 'Irish hand gestures' are, it means he was sticking up his rude finger.

I was going to say something else but I forget.

Anyway this chapter is fifteen pages. Uh… So this is just showing their personalities, Sasuke being kicked out, what Sakura has to deal with all the time, and of course – our two lovebirds meeting.

I honestly don't like this chapter. I know I said I disliked the prologue but I dislike this more. I don't hate it because there are bits I like, but it's poorly done. I could have done so much better, but I needed to get this out.

I do hope that people like it. Please review/Give feedback/Be awesome!

Next chapter will have more of Sakura's friends, some SasuSaku action and a whole lotta crap!

Stay tuned for more.


	3. Chapter Three: One Step Closer

**A/N: **All right! Thing is, I'm not going to tell you the minor pairings in this story. That's not how it goes down with real story writing. You sometimes don't even know that the main characters will get together, but sadly you had to know that this was SasuSaku, so there's no element of surprise there.

But I'm not saying anything on minor couples, although there definitely will be more couples than SasuSaku. I already have the minors in mind!

Anyway, I'm sorry for the fairly long update. Inspiration was lacking, and I am now sick. Whether it be swine flue or not, I am not certain. Either way, I'll probably die! Woo!

Review and favourite if you like it.

**Summary:** He was spoilt. He was rich. He was a player, and now… he's a gardener?? Kicked out of his own home, Sasuke comes across the Haruno Residence, finding food, shelter, a well-paying job and… the annoying pink-haired housemate. Now without his riches, he finally comes to realise that there is more to life than fast cars and wooing the ladies. – SasuSaku. Rated M for Language, Death and Violence.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto or Naruto Shippuden or any of these awesome characters. They belong to Kishi. However, I do own this story and this plot. No stealing.

* * *

_Last Chapter: _

_And most importantly, he glared at himself, because he had ruined everything._

_So he glared at the wall until his eyes gleamed blood red, and he continued to do so until a tear slid down his beautiful pale cheek._

_The anger finally disappeared once he realised his vision was blurred from tears instead of water, and the hatred that was kept inside of him was washed away along with the icy water that cleansed him._

_After all, he was still just a little boy in the body of a young man._

* * *

Prince Of The Hedges

_Chapter Three: One Step Closer To Independence_

* * *

_Her short pink locks blew in the wind, and a ghost of a smile spread across her rosy lips._

_She laid the cherry blossoms on the icy cold stone, tears rolling down porcelain cheeks, yet her smile never faltered._

_It was a cool day, but no rain would come. The only moist substance would be her tears._

_Her hands clutched at her chest, and she stared at the names encrusted into the old, weary stone._

_She opened her mouth, the trees rustling loudly as the wind continued to violently blow._

_The words escaped her, but it was silent-_

_Her words could not be heard._

_It was not time._

_She could not forgive herself just yet._

* * *

Sakura awoke startled, the breath exhaling from her so harshly that she had to clutch at her throat.

She was parched, and she forced herself to move from the warm bed and down the stairs so she could get a glass of water.

She idly rested against the counter, sipping the water she had just recently poured into a glass and stared out at the lawn through the kitchen window.

"The grass is getting long," she mused to herself in an attempt to make the house feel livelier and set her glass down to open the window.

The cool morning breeze blew in instantly, making goose bumps prick to life on her bare arms and legs.

Multiple thoughts raced across her mind in a matter of a few seconds – mostly about her parents – yet she willed herself not to cry.

A Haruno woman – especially if living by oneself – had to be independent, but she had to admit that she was lonely. Terribly lonely.

There were also many chores to do if you decided to live by yourself.

The housework was too much to handle, and it annoyed Sakura when she couldn't keep things clean because she knew she was a little bit of a neat freak. Dust particles just irritated her and made her sneeze.

There was also the matter of the gardening, school and her job – _Kono Café_ to be precise – to take into mind. She definitely needed someone to help her.

She didn't know what to do. Certainly she could just give up on the gardening - but she remembered her mother. How she talked about gardening, how she loved the outdoors… That's why her mother and Ino's mother were so close.

Garden fanatics, anyone?

Her mother's favourite tree was a cherry blossom, and she had always wanted to grow one – but ended up failing every time.

That was until she conceived a lovely daughter and named her Sakura; which translated to "Cherry Blossom".

It was a pity that she could not watch that certain cherry blossom bloom into a lovely and willowy cherry blossom tree, after all – it was only when Sakura was very young when her mother died on her.

Memories flooded her mind again and she couldn't help but let a few tears escape.

_So much for independence._

* * *

Sasuke awoke to red hair, or a red _mane_ rather, and almost kicked whatever it was away, thinking it was some kind of animal, when he realised Karin was snuggled into his chest.

Silently, he moved from her and stretched, happy that his girlfriend hadn't rid him of clothes throughout the night, but was fairly disturbed – although he would never admit that out loud – that she had joined him in the guest room whilst he was sleeping.

He wondered if it would be rude to call her a stalker. (Although it was Sasuke, what did he care?)

Quite casually he grabbed his clothes from the ground and dismissed himself to the bathroom to do the usual morning necessities.

In just a matter of ten minutes he had showered, dressed and was attempting to grab his bags from the bedroom when his _adored _girlfriend shot right up, clad in her underwear – which earned a shudder from Sasuke – and looked around the room confused.

Sasuke immediately understood that she had no glasses on and that her vision would be extremely blurred. It also helped that the colour of the walls were black, so his hair at least would easily be hidden.

"Sasuke-Kun," She squinted and fumbled around the bedside table for her glasses. "Is that you?"

Sasuke, being an Uchiha, usually had very intelligent plans for times like these when he wanted to escape his psychotic girlfriend, but sadly, seeing Karin in revealing underwear made his stomach do flips and the voice inside his head scream for help – so he did the first thing that came to mind.

He meowed.

Karin blinked and pouted, folding her arms across her chest. "Aw, Kitty, it's just you! I wanted Sasuke-Kun to see me like this!"

Another meow.

"He left? Damnit! Oh well. We'll have some fun when he comes back! Let me just get my underwear off… Hey Kitty! Where are you going? Don't leave me alone! OI! KITTY!"

Sasuke slapped his forehead at her idiocy and bolted down the stairs and right out the front door, not stopping even as the door slammed shut behind him.

He most certainly didn't want to be around when she realised that she didn't even have a cat.

* * *

After an hour of pulling herself back together, Sakura had finally showered and changed and was ready for another day out of her home with more company than just blonde bombshell, Ino.

Bruises marked her body, but only a single purple blotch had appeared on the left side of her face, right on the bone of her cheek, which made the under layer of her eye be purple, too. Thankfully Karin hadn't striked her upper half that much.

There was no doubt about it that all of her friends already knew about the fight - Much thanks to Ino for that one.

Sakura believed that there would be a lot of different emotions expressed during this _friendly_ gathering.

She scooped a hand through damp pink locks and grabbed a purse so she could carry her wallet, house keys and mobile phone, then swiftly exited her house and made her way down the path towards town.

The sky was darkened with clouds, and only the rarest of spots had sunlight peeking through.

Just a slight breeze blew - although it was still fairly chilly – and it had a moist feel to it as it whipped against skin that was not covered, so she guessed that it would start raining in a matter of minutes.

It was just one of those randomly cold summer days.

Sakura pondered on it for a moment, and then finally broke into a jog.

To be truthful, she didn't want to get caught in the rain.

First of all, it made her hair frizz. Secondly, rain was _cold_, and what had she decided to wear that day? A skirt. A flippin' skirt. Oh, she gave herself a pat on the back for that great idea.

Lastly, her blouse was white and her undergarments were green. If her blouse just so happened to get wet… that definitely wasn't something she wanted to sit around in for a couple hours and she would also have to go to work straight after their get-together, so that would be fairly humiliating.

Finally she entered town as the rain started pouring down hard, currently in a full-blown sprint. She bounded through the doors of the only pizzeria in town and subconsciously did a little victory dance.

"SHANNARO!" Sakura grinned to herself, punching a fist in the air, "Not even rain can beat my speed!"

A loud laugh came from her right and she swivelled her head around to see the one and only, Uzumaki Naruto sitting at a table, feet propped up on another chair with a cheeky grin plastered on his angelic face.

"Sakura-Chan, you're actually really slow! And your hair is all wet," The grin just widened as an embarrassed blush crept onto her cheeks, realising that he had seen her victorious dance solo. "I don't think you managed to beat the rain!"

"What do you know, you idiot?" Sakura grumbled and smacked him over the back of the head, then moved his legs so she could sit down.

"Ow…" He rubbed the back of his head, giving a slight hiss of pain.

Slowly, Naruto raised his head to look at her, but for once in his lifetime was a loss for words.

Only for a brief moment, though.

"Sakura-Chan! Look at that shiner!" He leaned forward and clamped his hands down on her shoulders, surprising her a little at his serious look. "Does it hurt? I don't bash women but I could get TenTen and Ino and Hinata and Temari to get Karin! Well Hinata probably wouldn't… but anyways! Dattebayo!"

Sakura laughed a little and waved him off, shrugging his hands off of her shoulders.

"It's nothing, Naruto! Calm down. I gave her more than what she gave me."

He frowned a little, a low growl forming in the back of his throat. "Doesn't mean I won't be pissed off at that red headed bi-"

The front door of the pizzeria opened, making the little bell at the top of the door sound, and cutting the blonde's nasty insult off.

"Now, now Naruto-Kun, you wouldn't want to swear in front of such a lovely blossom like Sakura-San, now would you?!" Lee leapt over, placing himself in between Naruto and Sakura, giving a wink towards the rosette.

Sakura laughed nervously, a mental sweat drop forming, "Hey, Rock Lee…"

"How many times do I have to say it, Sakura-San? Just call me Lee! Or better yet, Lee-Kun!"

"How about I just call you Lee-San, because you call me Sakura-San?" She bargained, silently praying that he would just leave it at that. Lee was a good friend, but he was a little too touchy-feely… and his eyebrows scared the living daylights out of her.

"THAT WOULD BE ALMIGHTY YOUTHFUL, SAKURA-SAN!" Lee cried happily and over-enthusiastically, tears streaming down his cheeks.

Sadly, Maito Gai, Lee's Sensei wasn't here to join in on the epic scene.

"Shut up, Lee." A young man standing by the door ordered coldly, two girls standing right beside him.

Naruto looked up and grinned. "Hey Neji, TenTen, Hinata! Didn' notice ya there! Grab a seat."

TenTen rolled her eyes and strolled over. "We would if you wouldn't stop putting your feet on all of the chairs, silly," and then forcefully pulled a chair out from his feet.

Hinata and Neji both walked over swiftly, and in similar motions, then both sat down just as elegantly.

At the exact same time.

Sakura sighed under her breath.

'_That's cousins for you… especially Hyuuga cousins…'_

"Good morning, Naruto-Kun," Hinata smiled softly, a blush evidently tinted on her cheeks. "Everyone."

"'Morning, Hinata!" Naruto grinned toothily at her, making her blush even more and hang her head so nobody could see her face.

Sakura shook her head from side to side slowly, dumbfounded by Naruto's oblivious mind.

Was it not plainly obvious that Hinata had a crush on him? She had liked Naruto for about five years already and the idiot hadn't even noticed – and Hinata being Hinata, was way too shy and modest to do a thing about it, and she was way too afraid of knowing what he'd think about it, so she hadn't asked her gal pals to inquire Naruto about it, either.

Sakura was very tempted to at least give Hinata a little push – a path of guidance in which she should take to get the man of her dreams.

Wasn't that what every girl wanted, anyway? Someone to love, someone who would hold you at night, someone who would comfort and pleasure…

"HOLY SHIT LOOK AT YOUR FACE NOW!!!"

Ah yes.

It seems Ino had walked in while Sakura was in deep thought.

Sakura rolled her sea-foam green eyes. "Sit down, Piggy. Now that I have a black eye you can be the centre of attention of men that you've always craved for."

"Way to make me sound like I'm desperate and yourself vain, billboard-brow!"

"Well, it could be true. You see, Ino, I'm always the centre of attention! And you are just left out all the time. You are quite desperate, if I do say so myself!" Sakura grinned ear-to-ear cheekily, and if her grin could get any wider (which it couldn't, because god damn her cheek would hurt – and also the slight fact that it's impossible), it would be exactly when Ino's face started turning beet red.

Yes, this was the typical 'conversation' (if you could call it that) they usually had when Ino wasn't babbling about boys, shopping and flowers – although flowers were one of the better topics.

"Ohhhh!" She cried exasperatedly, dragging it out and finishing the tantrum with throwing her hands up in the air and stomping a foot down.

She finally stopped after a few jaw clenched breaths, mentally bringing thoughts of how she couldn't help Sakura with Karin, so she began to sympathize her rather than be annoyed at her at that moment.

If she had managed to break free from those loony fangirls, she could have prevented the bruise – and many more, too.

No one noticed her small frown.

Everyone laughed at her actions, but were stopped when another familiar, albeit strange laughter joined their little (and loud, guaranteed) session.

They stopped, and looked over at the door, where an awkward looking boy stood laughing, but stopped when he felt the stares on him.

_Sai, _Everyone thought mechanically.

Sai smiled, gave a wave and spoke. "I do not get what you find most hilarious."

The replica of Sakura in the shop window started talking, only heard by her other self, "Well, he's doing okay for someone who learns emotions straight out of books," she proposed, but the tone in her illusionary voice showed that she didn't seem too sure of her words. "Right, Outer? _Right?_"

Sakura let her head dropped into her folded arms, hiding the obvious look of hidden laughter, and decided replying wasn't best at this point in time.

* * *

Ten minutes had past since Sai had walked through the door, and they were still awaiting five friends out of fifteen (Sixteen if you wanted to get technical, for Akamaru).

Kiba and Shino had finally come too, not too far behind Sai, and Shino had instantly fallen into silence after he greeted with a remote 'Good Morning'.

Kiba, on the other hand, instantly started chatting, petting the small Akamaru in his jumper, and hid the puppy when anyone clearly not in their circle of friends decided to look over.

Some of the group were very silent people, but everyone talked and all got along, even Ino and Temari did… when Ino decided to suck up her childish attitude.

They jabbed at Sakura's bruise, earning certain people a punch in the face, and chatted and laughed like friends did on a day out.

When the bell sounded, and Shikamaru and Choji walked in, different greetings were passed between, and they seated.

Choji looked around, a rumble progressing out of his big stomach. He looked around and frowned. "You haven't ordered yet? Come on! I'm starving here! Let's order now!"

He reached for a menu, and Ino reacted by smacking him on the hand.

"Bad, Choji!" Acting like he was some sort of pet, she continued. "We can't order until Gaara, Kankuro and… _it_ is here. Actually, maybe we should start to order. Good idea, Choji!"

Shikamaru yawned and cracked open a dark eye, staring straight at the blonde. "Don't refer to my girlfriend as an _it_, and they're not coming anyway. They had to go away somewhere with their father. Now let's stop with troublesome bickering and order. Nice bruise, Sakura." and his eye closed once again.

That was conversation for Shikamaru. Too lazy to really continue anything.

No one questioned Shikamaru's antics, already too used to the lazy butt, and already knowing why it would have taken them so long to get here.

Either Shikamaru was still sleeping, or Choji was still eating breakfast.

No one wanted to disturb _any_ of those two while doing such a thing. Only Shikamaru was allowed to interrupt Choji, or only Choji was allowed to interrupt Shikamaru. Not even Ino should, or Choji would probably sit on her, and Shikamaru would use her as a pillow.

They were best friends since only little, after all.

The group ordered, and finally Naruto asked a question only he would ask.

"Hey, hey, WAITER! Do you guys serve Ramen Pizza here?"

The woman blinked, the group sweat dropped, and Naruto was still looking up at her innocently, waiting for her answer.

"I'm sorry, Sir, but there is no such thing as Ramen Pizza. If you would like some Ramen, maybe you should go over to the Ichiraku Ramen stand."

He grunted childishly, cheeks puffed out annoyed, blue eyes bright. "They won't let me," he gestured to his group of friends. "They said I'd get fat and wouldn't fit through Jenny Craig's door."

"Na-"

Neji interjected Sakura's 'Naruto-You're-An-Idiot' speech and stared at the blonde as he spoke, long lashes hiding barely conspicuous pupils, the white of his eyes seemingly staring straight into blue.

This was how Hyuuga Neji got the attention of someone, although it usually only worked on women, but since Naruto was a douche, it would work on him too.

"Naruto. What do you eat for breakfast?"

"Um… Ramen! Dattebayo!"

"What do you eat for lunch?"

"Ramen!!"

"What do you eat for a snack?"

"Ramen!"

"What do you eat for dinner?"

"Ramen… yep, it's Ramen."

"What do you eat for desert?"

"Cookies! No wait. It's Ramen too. Yay!"

"That is why you're not allowed. Your turn, Sakura."

This time, Sakura joined the questioning, although she settled it with a blunt fact. "Naruto, you're a flipping idiot."

The waitress was long gone by then, finally getting everyone's order (Hinata ordered for Naruto) and Naruto and Sakura had started bickering like an old married couple. The other part of the group just decided to ignore them and start their own conversation, although Hinata attempted to referee between Naruto and Sakura's playful arguing, urgently saying that they were causing a ruckus and would probably get kicked out if they got any louder.

"No way, Hinata!" Naruto laughed and grinned, ruffling her hair, making her blush yet again. "We pay cash! We're like kings in this place- Oh! Queens too! Ha!" He quickly added as he saw Sakura's annoyed face.

"If you say so, Naruto-Kun…" Sounding fairly unsure, but let them talk again, adding comments in every once in a while.

Over the loud noise, no one noticed the bell ring again, or the obscure figure making his way through the door, a miffed look on his handsome face.

He cursed under his breath, wet raven locks falling against pale cheeks as he raised his head.

All women that saw him stuttered to themselves and spontaneously combusted – or they just fainted, but the former was more entertaining.

Sasuke wasn't used to such noise, since the places he went to for food usually were very quiet and elegant, full of women with diamonds and pearls around their necks, and men who wore expensive looking suits and a cocky grin, but he would have to make do considering he only managed to grab a hundred dollar bill from Karin's wallet as he fled.

He shrugged to himself, merciless, knowing she would have given it to him if he had asked, and turned to leave and find a quieter place – maybe that Ramen stand he walked by earlier – but stopped himself when he heard a girl's voice.

"Hey, Choji! Hand over the pizza! We're hungry too!"

"No way! Mine, mine, mine!"

"Someone tackle him! Dattebayo!"

"SAVE THE PIZZA! HAHA!"

"Akamaru! Hey- Come back you silly dog!!!"

Sasuke turned back around, ignoring the many other voices that joined in, only remembering the first voice.

He saw her in her chair, leaning against a guy with a bowl cut, clad in green spandex, and laughing and clutching her sides.

Sasuke glanced down at the floor, seeing a big guy on the ground with a plate of pizza sitting on his stomach, and then a small dog on the pizza – and eating the pizza.

Then there was a blonde and a brown haired guy around his age (although everyone at the table seemed around his age) attempting to pull the dog off.

He tore his gaze away from the guys on the ground when a waitress came out and started yelling at them to get the dog out, and walked to the table behind the two tables they occupied.

It was only a mini one that could fit two people there, so he sat his two bags on the chair across from him and sat down, hoping no one would think they were allowed to move his bags and sit down.

Yet again, he looked over at the group.

One of the boys that was trying to get the dog off the fat guy – the brunette - was just entering the pizzeria again – probably to get rid of the dog – and sat back down in his seat. After a few minutes, he unzipped his jacket a little and stuck some of the leftover pizza in his jacket. Suddenly, a little black nose surrounded by white fur poked out, and Sasuke realised that he had snuck the dog back in.

He smirked. _'Sneaky bastard.'_

"_Inuzuka Kiba!_ Trust you to sneak your dog back in after having to kick him out!" TenTen scolded over the two tables, but in a hushed state. She didn't want Akamaru to have to go back out either.

Kiba grinned, pointy canines sticking out obviously. "I know, I know! I was glad we went out anyway. He needed to poop, and I didn't want to have to wash this jacket again!"

"_Please_, Kiba," Choji started, mouth full of food, some chunks flying back on to the table, which Sasuke thought was extremely disgusting. "Some of us are trying to eat here."

"_Please_, Choji. Some of us are trying to keep our appetites!" The dog owner mocked, although slightly altering it to suit the situation, still grinning playfully.

"I don't understand why you're both saying please and then being extremely rude to one another. Maybe I should try it." Sai spoke, and everyone knew it was going to be bad. "Kiba, I have come to believe that you like beastiality and you, Choji, are fat. Please."

Silence ensued the pizzeria.

Not even a whisper was uttered.

Everyone just stared at Sai, Kiba and Choji.

The dreaded _f_ word had been spoken in front of Choji, and Kiba had been accused of beastiality.

If looks could kill…

Ino leaned across the table and gave Sai a nudge, whispering into his ear to run, and then the three were off on a running race out of the pizzeria, curse words flying and angry yapping coming from the dog trying to bite Sai's pale butt.

The pizzeria was once again full of laughter, the only one in the group not laughing being Sakura herself. (It's okay. The Emo ones chuckled. They don't laugh.)

Idly, she blew into the straw of her now empty glass of coke, eyes lidded and staring ahead. The breath blew through the straw and down into the glass, only slightly making the ice jitter around.

Sasuke glanced over and watched her, eyes following her hand movements and how her eyes never left the ice in the glass.

It bothered him, because he felt a sudden wash of déjà vu.

How is it, that when even being with so many people, she looked so alone?

It was just like him, but with strangers rather than friends. Strangers, who called themselves his friend.

They would never understand.

They would never notic-

"Sakura-San, what's the matter? You're awfully quiet! Does the bruise hurt? Would you like me to get some ice for it?"

Someone had noticed, and that had made Sasuke stiff. His fists clenched and he glared. Maybe it was just him, after all.

Maybe it was just that no one _wanted_ to notice _him._

The real _him._

Sakura laughed and smiled up at him. "Yes, and no, thankyou, Lee-San. It doesn't hurt too much, but the bruise isn't what is bugging me."

By now she had more than just Sasuke and Lee watching her. Naruto, Ino- basically everyone that hadn't fled.

Naruto furrowed golden brows, whiskers twitching just the slightest. "You can tell us! Or you can just tell me. You know you can trust me, Sakura-Chan!"

That earned him a pizza in the face from Ino.

"It just seems so childish to be worrying about something so small…"

"As the idiot said, you can trust us! We won't laugh!" Ino urged, giving her an encouraging smile and a squeeze on the shoulder.

"I want to hire a gardener. I can't keep up with everything else. Too much pressure." She succumbed, finally telling them. Agitatedly, she blew some hair out of her face and looked at her friend's expressions. Most of them had softened a little.

Only a few there didn't know of her mothers gardening love.

Suddenly, Naruto shot up with hands on hips and grinned brightly. "Why do you need to hire a gardener when you have me here, dattebayo!?"

Shikamaru angled himself around in the chair to see him. "The last time you offered to garden, the person ended up without one, and you ended up with a brand new bump on the head, Naruto."

He pouted and sat back down.

"Well what about me? I know everything about flowers. I'm the best in your current situation!" Ino smiled and punched her lightly on the arm. "Come on, Sakura, you know you want to. I'd even be free."

Sakura shook her head from side-to-side, blowing out a sigh. "No, you can't! There's no time for you. You have to work the flower shop with your parents, and you have schoolwork and…er…" Sakura paused, sparing a glance over at Shikamaru, whose eyes were back to being closed. "Other stressful matters."

Ino frowned sadly. "Oh," is all she said.

Sakura looked at her mobile from her purse and shot up quickly, almost knocking the chair down. "Shoot! I'm going to be late for work! I'll come in contact later to see if those two murdered Sai or not! Bye!" and shot out the door, into the rain, the bell tingling.

Sasuke finished his meal and stared at the door swing close.

He pondered for a moment but finally stood and grabbed his bags, paying at the counter. The man at the register was baffled, but clumsily worked the register.

Sasuke guessed it wasn't everyday that someone payed for a pizza with one hundred dollars.

He grabbed the change and left quickly, and by luck, could still see moving pink hair in the distance.

A smirk rose from his blank face, and he hurried so he wouldn't lose her.

Today was going fairly well for Sasuke, and he was definitely not going to lose the opportunity that was unknowingly running away from him.

* * *

Rain poured down and soaked into her hair, making it frizz and her mouth shout a stream of lovely and colourful words.

Sakura folded her arms across her chest and kept running, cursing the rain and cursing her fashion sense.

It was already mid afternoon – it was just hard to tell with so many dark clouds shielding the sun. She hadn't realised after having such a good time and after much thought about gardening that she only had about two minutes to get to work.

Her boss was strict and if you got on her bad side, you could guarantee that she'd call you a maggot and fire you on spot, no regrets, but besides that, Mitarashi Anko wasn't such a bad person. She didn't favour Sakura, of course – Anko favoured no one, but they got along when Anko was in a good mood, and Sakura wasn't spilling hot coffee over the customers.

It was a wonder that she hadn't gotten herself fired as of yet.

Two minutes were well up, and her legs were soaked to her knees, and she thought she was going to drop dead from running so much in one day but finally managed to burst through a door the second time that day and do a victory dance.

"SHANNARO!" Sakura punched a fist in the air and shook her hips around. "Only three minutes late!"

"HARUNO!" A womanly voice bellowed, followed by a short woman with a whole lotta chest – and she didn't seem to be very modest about it either, considering her blouse was very low cut. "What the hell are you doing jumping all over my floor with those wet shoes? You're scaring the customers, you maggot!" and she smacked Sakura over the head.

Sakura held her head and winced. "I'm Sorry, Mitarashi-Sama!"

The elder woman blew her purple fringe out of the way and sighed, hands resting on hips. "Don't god damn start with the formalities again, Haruno. It's not going to get you on my good side. Now take your shoes off to dry, put the stupid apron on and get me some dango before I fire your ass," she spared a single glance at the floor. "Oh, and mop that up while you're at it."

Anko marched off and Sakura also ran into the back to put the apron on and took her shoes off, putting the slippers she had in her locker on. She slipped the apron on over her neck and tied it up, and then hurried back to the front of the store to get an already made dango for Anko.

_Kono café_ was a café, of course, with coffee and tea and milkshakes and muffins being sold, but when Anko bought the store – which was only a couple years ago – she put in an extra part to sell dumplings. The add-on was officially called _Mitarashi's dumplings _for a pun, considering Mitarashi Dango is a popular type of dango, and dango is a dumpling, but since it was just joined to the café, most people didn't bother with the add-on name and kept calling it _Kono Café._

Sakura grabbed one and put it on a plate, then walked into the back hurriedly but carefully so she would not fall over and blind herself with the skewer.

Anko was at her desk in the far back with a coffee and a dozen plates surrounding.

She really enjoyed her dango.

She put the plate down and was about to leave again when her boss's voice stopped her.

"How are things at home?"

To anyone who didn't know Anko, they would think she was trying small talk. To anyone who did know Anko, it was just because she wanted to know something and then have the humorous event of kicking you out of her office and telling you to get back to work.

"Good. I'm managing okay."

"So, you're not going to ask me for a raise out of self-pity just because your parents are dead?" Anko's brown eyes met hers.

No sympathy was there, but Sakura didn't feel sad for it. Anko didn't have parents either.

"No, ma'am."

"I see. You're doing well without it, kid. Keep it up. Now get the heck out of my office before someone slips over the mess you made."

"I'm on it!"

She ran out of the office and back to the front quickly, glad that she hadn't been physically booted out and grabbed a mop from the utility closet.

Sakura started to mop up her spill, but took a few glances towards the back of the café as she did so.

A smile spread to her lips and she looked to the ground, her smile still remaining.

She never knew that she could feel so independent and strong from someone just saying that, although she knew it held much deeper meaning, because it was from Anko herself.

Ano would never have disrupted her from work unless it was important, and she told her clearly what she had to say – although not with words.

_You're doing better than I ever did. Don't screw it up._

* * *

"Crap," Sasuke muttered to himself sourly.

He looked up and down the streets, but saw not even a glance of pink hair.

"Crap!" he repeated but louder, the people that surrounded him giving peculiar looks. He glared at them deathly, making them edge away and walk off.

He followed their example and walked, and he walked, and walked until his arms started to ache from carrying his bags.

Sasuke sunk down on a bench, putting his bags beside him so no one would sit down. He didn't trust himself fully to let someone near him, or he'd probably lash out and get sent to juvy.

It wasn't the first time.

He sighed and hung his head. He was drenched, but he was lucky that the bench had a shelter so that he could dry off.

Being an Uchiha, he had a good immune system, but sitting out in the rain all day probably wasn't the best idea anyway.

'_I should probably just call Karin and get her to pick me up…'_

Sasuke stopped in his thoughts, and realised what he just thought and him meowing were about the stupidest things that had ever come to his ingenious mind.

Who was the man in that relationship?

He honestly didn't know anymore.

Sasuke stretched, and settled it right there. He was going to find where Pinky worked, and he wasn't going to wake up to Karin for the rest of his life.

It wasn't amazing, but it was a start.

He had no idea where Sakura worked, but it couldn't be too hard. Konoha wasn't the biggest town. All he had to do was poke his head in to a few places until he spotted her, and then he'd make his move.

She had what he needed, and he had what she wanted.

It was like killing two birds with one stone.

His phone vibrated against his pants leg and he pulled it out. It was one of the few electronic devices he had left. He managed to hide it, his iPod and his Nintendo DS from his father.

He opened the text and read it hesitantly, already knowing that it would be from Karin.

_Bbe i wont a ktty ;) _

He knew it was mean, but sometimes he hoped that she was dyslexic and couldn't help but spell like that.

After a minute, Sasuke's eyebrows furrowed as he read it over. She knew he had no money, why would she ask him for a cat?

His eyes widened only slightly as it clicked, but he quickly hid it.

No, she didn't know that he had no money. She only knew he'd been kicked out. She still thought he was rich. She still thought he could buy her things.

That's why she hadn't dumped him.

So, for the millionth time that day, he swore.

* * *

Sakura tucked a stray pink lock behind her ear as she pushed the coffee to the other side of the counter.

"Have a nice night!" she smiled and waved as the customer left and rocked back on her heels sighing.

The clock said it was six, and she was happy that she could finally go for her break, but almost screamed when she heard the door open again.

She contemplated on diving down and hiding, but she could here the slosh of wet footsteps walking towards her. She had already been spotted.

She'd have to clean up the damn floor again, too.

So she agreed to herself on just telling whoever it was that she was on her break and was waiting for her work buddy, Yuudai, to turn up and fill in for her, who was exceptionally late. Later than her even, although only by a minute.

Sakura felt whoever it was behind her, and they loomed over her, probably wondering when she was going to serve them. She was about to turn around when she felt hot breath on her ear, and she realised that he had leaned over the counter and was right _there._

The breath escalated down her neck and down her spine, making her shiver and the heat rise to her face.

She couldn't speak for she was frozen, and was wondering if it was some old man willing to pay her for some nasty deed, but she couldn't turn around.

His hand went to her back and she jerked lightly, but he curled his fingers in the fabric of her blouse, not willing to let go. She heard him make a noise behind her, and it sounded like a grunt between a brief laugh.

There was a slight movement and she felt his lips even closer to her ear, and for some reason, she just _knew_ that this person was smirking.

That's when he spoke.

"I've found you," the heat tickled the back of her ear again, and her blush grew in realisation. "Haruno Sakura_._"

* * *

**A/N: **YAY! I've finally updated. I hope I haven't lost any reviewers for my slacking off.

Anyways, it's fifteen pages but that also includes Authors notes where as my last chapter was fifteen pages but I didn't count the stuff that wasn't the actual story.

Let me think of what I need to say. Er… oh yeah.

Someone asked me if Sasuke got in the shower last chapter because I didn't completely specify that he did (Yeah, I'm talking to you, Sarah). Yes he did get in the shower. Obviously.

I tend to do the not specifying heaps thing. I did it at the start of this chapter where Sakura was randomly in her bedroom, then the kitchen in the next line. But you get the point. Sorry for that. It's my style.

And if anyone is wondering why I didn't describe how everyone was magically dripping wet in the pizzeria, it's because they probably weren't.

Like smart people, they probably took an umbrella or got a lift or drove. Sakura's just stupid as hell in my story.

Also, I said she put her 'slippers' on. Yes, slippers. They're Japanese. That's why. I'd use more Japanese-like terms but I know people who don't know anything about Japanese at all, so that's why I'm not.

Anyway, you're all great and I'm really looking forward to more reviews and your feedback. I don't want older people to just go, "Oh, she's only fourteen. I'll just say something nice so she doesn't get upset." Because I don't give a rats butt. I want people to say what they feel, with meaning of course. I don't want you to go I HATE IT YOU SUCK GO PEE ON SOMEONE'S FACE FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE! But if you don't like it, tell me why and I'll try to improve.

I know I'm not the best writer. I'm absolutely terrible compared to some great people, but I love expressing myself with words, and writing is the best way to do it. So share your thoughts, and I'll try to get back to you if you have any questions.

Oh and since I'm crazy, I did an alternate ending randomly. I was hyper, so be afraid.

**Alternate Ending:** (When Sasuke entered the pizzeria)

The obscure figure walked over to them swiftly, shaking his hips side to side, and stabbed them with a potato.

"HAPPY CHRISTMAS!!!"

And everyone ate a pack mule and lived happily ever after, besides the ones who got stabbed with an obese potato with a sword (Yes, it has a sword now).

THE END!

Or is it…

Yes…

No…

Hello…

Goodbye…

I'm going to go listen to HelloGoodbye now.

I'MM HEREE IN YOUURRR ARMMSMSSSSSS Ohhhh…

REVIEWWWWWW BITCHESSSSSZZZ looooolllololol


	4. Chapter Four: Bitter Chocolate

**UPDATED 15/12/10 A/N**: Remember to read the NEW authors note on the next page. I deleted the old one. I think the author's note on the next page will make everyone happy, hopefully.

* * *

Anyway, I'm so sorry for the lack of updating. Here's an extra long chapter for you guys. But yeah, I've been getting pestered by my _lovely _friends to do this. Maddie was one of them. Nicole was the second one. Sarah, you weren't too bad. Good girl. But anyway, here you are! CHAPTER… what chapter are we up to again?

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto or Naruto Shippuden or any of these awesome characters. They belong to Kishi. However, I do own this story and this plot. No stealing.

* * *

_Last Chapter: _

_There was a slight movement and she felt his lips even closer to her ear, and for some reason, she just __**knew**__ that this person was smirking._

_That's when he spoke._

"_I've found you," the heat tickled the back of her ear again, and her blush grew in realisation. "Haruno Sakura."_

_

* * *

_

Prince Of The Hedges

_Chapter Four: Bitter Chocolate_

_

* * *

_

Her breath hitched uncomfortably, like a lump was stuck in her throat and wouldn't get out.

She could not breathe.

She could not speak.

She could not move.

His voice was not one you could easily forget, especially after how intimidated she was by it.

How she practically cowered in front of him that day.

What stupidity she had showed, and to a man she didn't even know!

His breath tickled the back of her neck and her ear lobe still, even and insouciant.

He wasn't panicked at all.

He knew exactly what he was doing and that didn't bother him at all.

It seemed as though he snuck up behind an innocent girl everyday, breathing down their neck and saying he'd 'found them'.

A possible way of how he could have met his current girlfriend.

A low grunt came out of his mouth and she finally realised that he was waiting for her to reply.

Apparently she wasn't meant to be completely frozen and scared while waiting to get butt-raped.

Sakura inwardly rolled her eyes.

She _almost _yelled: "My bad! Next time you come up behind me and breath down my neck like a divorced fifty-year-old horny fart I'll just bend over and lift my skirt up!" but quickly remembered that he'd probably help her do that if she said it, and pressed her lips tightly together.

Her reflection burst out laughing. "He doesn't want to rape us, lunatic. We have the counter between us. If he wanted to – which I wouldn't know why – he would have jumped over the counter already and started humping us like a dog."

Sakura grimaced at the crude language and looked away from the window, then sucked in a breath.

She opened her mouth, ready to tell him to let go, when the door swung open, and a soft sound – much like a snicker – made her snap her head around.

Evidently, Sasuke's head did the same thing.

A short boy stood in the doorway, holding an umbrella.

He was thirteen years old, with brown, spiky hair kept in place with a pair of goggles, and the scarf wrapped around his neck hardly hid the grin plastered on his face.

Sakura finally snapped out of her frozen stance and pulled herself from Sasuke's grip roughly.

Sasuke shoved both hands into his pockets and raised a black eyebrow at the boy standing in the doorway.

Sakura cleared her throat, making as much distance between her and Sasuke possible, and then folded her arms, setting a stern look on her face.

"Konohamaru! What are you doing here? Where's Yuudai?" She glanced at the clock on the wall and looked back at him. "He's late."

Konohamaru kept grinning. "Yuudai's got chickenpox so he got fired. You know how Anko is. Now I get to do his shifts while Anko looks for someone else! Hey, Sakura's boyfriend! Do you want a job? You guys can make out all you like when you're both on break." He proceeded to wiggle his eyebrows suggestively.

Sakura growled and clenched her fists. "WE ARE NOT DATING! I DON'T KNOW HIM! AND NO HE DOESN'T WANT A JOB!"

He laughed and walked in properly, closing the door behind him and putting his umbrella down. "That's not what it looked like to me!"

"I honestly wonder why you haven't been fired yet. You're a complete pain in the arse." She grumbled irritably.

"It's because I take after Boss, of course. How's Boss doing anyway? Haven't seen him in a while."

"Yes, I can see the resemblance. Loud, ignorant and annoying. Naruto hasn't seen you because nowadays he's usually locked up in his house trying to catch up with all the homework he hasn't done since we started High School. Which is everything. He hung out today though."

Konohamaru looked shocked. "Boss is failing School?"

Sakura smiled. At least some kids knew how important school was. "Yes. He might repeat if he keeps it up."

"Then why the hell am I trying so hard? He'll just repeat all the way back to my year and I'll just beat him at everything then!" He punched a fist in the air. "Sweet! I don't have to do that Geography assignment to surpass him anymore!"

Sakura sweat dropped. "Instead of trying to be like Naruto-"

She was cut off when Sasuke cleared his throat.

Sakura looked over and saw the annoyance crossed over his face clearly, and was surprised at herself that she even forgot that he was there.

At that same instant, a customer walked in, and Anko stuck her head out of her office door.

"KONOHAMARU! GET BEHIND THE COUNTER AND SERVE THE NICE LADY! AND SAKURA! RACK OFF WITH YOUR BOYFRIEND ALREADY!"

"Yes, Ma'am." They said in unison, and scurried off to their appropriate places.

Sakura was half way there when a hand clamped itself onto her shoulder and abruptly stopped her from moving.

She inclined her head slightly to stare into his eyes, already knowing whom it was.

"Get your things and meet me outside."

Sakura turned around quickly, opening her mouth to question his antics, but he was already out the door and into the downpour of rain, leaving her standing alone with only one question going through her mind.

_What the hell is going on?_

_

* * *

_

The door slammed shut and the rain hit her instantly, soaking her hair so it clung to both her neck and face.

Sakura looked around but could not see any sign of a dark looking fellow.

But then again, it was pitch black outside with nothing but lights reflecting from inside restaurants to lead the way of people passing by.

'_It's better this way,' _Sakura thought, nodding in silent agreement with herself. _'Karin probably just sent him over to annoy me or something.'_

She looked around once more to make sure and started off down the practically empty street.

He really was nowhere to be seen, but she couldn't help but look around to make sure he wouldn't jump out from nowhere suddenly.

After all, he _did _tell her to meet him outside. So why wasn't he out there waiting for her, ready to do whatever the hell he wanted to do?

'_Men.' _She thought to herself in disgust and kept walking as the rain came down harder and the night sky gradually got darker.

She wanted to be home, she wanted to curl up in her bed, the doona wrapped around her securely and the electric blanket turned up to four out of six levels of heat. With her parents, and not with a car speeding around a corner and splashing water all over her already soaked clothing.

Her middle finger protruded at the P plater that was already near invisible against the downpour and shouted a string of colourful words that was inaudible against the crash of rain.

Sighing, she spared a glance over her shoulder and kept walking, still not seeing anyone following her. Distracted, her foot fell off the curb and she stumbled onto the road.

Headlights flooded her peripheral vision and she was temporarily blinded until her mind started processing what was happening.

Sakura heard the sound of the engine and muffled music pounding as if it was right beside her, and as she dared to glance over, frozen in place, she realised in horror that in just a few seconds, that example would become a fact, and then the Hummer H2 SUV that was flooring down the road at eighty kilometres an hour would squash her like a bug and she'd be left as road kill.

She was too frozen to move, and even if she could it would be too late.

Would the driver see her through the perennial rain? Would he be able to see her small, saturated figure over the enormous bonnet, even with the headlights blaring, highlighting her against the darkness?

It wouldn't matter either way, she mused.

If he slammed on the breaks now, he would hit her anyway and probably crash from the slippery tar and the fact that he was speeding, and if he decided to swerve around her, the end result would be the same.

Her life didn't flash before her eyes, but an inhuman grip suddenly grabbed her from behind, so strong that she wondered if the Hummer had already hit her.

It tore her off her feet so fast that she couldn't focus on anything properly, and she was pulled backwards in a blur of darkness.

Sakura felt the Hummer go right passed her. She felt the heat and heard the roar of the engine and the muffled music.

It was like a slap in the face.

And then it was gone, and she lay on the ground panting from the rush.

But the ground was breathing, panting too.

And she realised that she wasn't lying on the ground, but infact on a person. The person who managed to run onto the road, grab her and haul them both off just before it flattened them.

Impossible.

She rolled off of the person and looked at them. Then swore.

Uchiha Sasuke sat up and gave her a long stare. His lips did not move. He didn't utter a single thing. He just stared; fury and incredulity were etched onto his perfectly chiselled face.

And his eyes glinted from red back to onyx so quick that she just assumed it was the reflection of a light.

Sakura opened her mouth to question him, but when his glare intensified she quickly shut her mouth and watched him rise to his feet.

He grabbed her by the arm and wrenched her to her own feet roughly, making her stumble. But Sasuke was in no mood for an annoying girl's clumsiness, so he hauled her along, forcing her to properly stand, and headed back to his bags that he dropped.

Many questions flew through her mind as she stared at his back, his black shirt clinging tightly to his muscles. His hair was plastered to the back of his neck, but you could still make out a few subtle spikes protruding up, fighting against the rain.

She closed her eyes as they walked, the questions still jabbing loudly in her head, giving her a minor headache.

_How did he know where I was?_

_How did he get here so fast?_

_How did he pull us both off the road so quickly?_

_Why did he even bother to save me?_

_Why is he so strong?_

_What did he want in the first place?_

_Why wasn't he outside and where did he go?_

_How is his hair still spiky?_

Sakura decided to play it safe and asked quietly, afraid that he would get annoyed if she was loud, "Why weren't you waiting outside?"

He glanced back at her briefly and continued walking.

For a moment she thought he was going to keep ignoring her, but he finally opened his mouth.

"I went out the back to make sure you couldn't sneak out from there. You girls usually take a decade to get ready, so I took my time."

"Sexist _and _creepy," She muttered, which earned her a raised eyebrow. "So you came back and I wasn't there to hear your explanation of why you need to talk to me so bad?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Aa."

"Right," Sakura suddenly tore her arm away from his grip with surprising force and folded them against her chest. "Well, even though you pulled me off the road - which I am grateful for - I don't really want to hear one of Karin's death threats because I punched her in the nose or whatever, so you can skip along home now like a good, obedient man whore."

He stopped suddenly, and she thought he was going to hit her or yell at her, until he leaned down and picked up the bags that he left by a bus stop.

Sasuke stood under the shelter and looked down at her after a moment, obsidian eyes giving nothing away.

"You talk too much," he said flatly. "Shut up."

Her eyebrow twitched in annoyance slightly, but her lips remained pursed.

He nodded, satisfied with the silence. "Point me in the direction of your house."

Sakura's jaw dropped. "You are absolutely not coming to my house!"

"I told you to shut up, that's why you were supposed to point. Do you not know the difference between hand gestures and talking?"

"I know this." She stuck up her middle finger.

Sasuke watched her, stuck between being amused or annoyed, and finally decided to ignore it. "Lead the way."

"I don't know you! You are not coming to my house! Go to Karin's!" She yelled exasperatedly and marched off, although he remained following her, leaving her to glance over her shoulder more than a few times and shout at him, which he all nonchalantly pretended not to hear.

After the repeated process of walking, yelling and ignoring, they finally stopped at the door to the small, two-story house. The grass surrounding was far too long and all the plants were either dying or dead.

Sasuke took note of the dull area as Sakura fiddled with her house keys, but didn't comment.

She finally opened the door after a few agonizingly freezing minutes and threw herself into the dry room, attempting to slam the door on her companion, whom quite easily blocked the door from shutting with his shoulder and slipped in.

Sakura pointed stiff armed at the door. "Out!"

Sasuke dumped his bags and smirked at her, raising an eyebrow.

Ticked off even more at the fact that he wouldn't even budge, she raised her tone at the amused man. "_Sasuke! _– That's your name right? – _GET OUT!_ I will not repeat myself anymore!"

"Then don't," he agreed. "It would do me a favour."

"Doing you a favour is one of the last things on my list." She grumbled. "We don't know each other at all. Our only connection is your girlfriend. She's your sex buddy and she's my enemy. Hardly a reason for you to be here."

"I saved your life without knowing you."

She paused at that, and Sasuke didn't add in that he only did it for his own benefit.

He wasn't selfish. He was just desperate, and if everything went according to plan, he'd be back in his luxurious mansion in no time. He just needed a place to stay while he worked on it.

"Why did you do that, anyway?" She watched him intently, her lips curved downward into a tiny frown.

"It doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is that you owe me." He looked around, sucking everything in. It was homey enough, but small, even for a two-story house. "I hope you have a spare room."

"A spare room! A SPARE ROOM!" She spluttered, glaring. "No, there is not a spare room! There is my room and my parents room!"

He opened his mouth to retaliate, but she cut him off, which left him annoyed.

Why _this_ girl of all the people in the world?

"_YOU, _my dear, can sleep out on the road for all I care! I don't know you! You didn't have to bloody well save me – and a matter of fact, I don't even know how you did that because about two seconds earlier I was looking over my shoulder and guess what? You were _not_ there."

Sasuke watched her until she was finished, her cheeks now flushed, her eyes narrowed. She was panting. From anger or from screaming so much, he did not know – but he assumed both was the best answer.

"I have no reason to explain myself to you, however, I will explain why I am staying here, and that's it. After this, never ask me things that do not involve you – and that is practically everything besides this, because I do not wish to involve myself with you anymore than I already have." His tone was firm and icy.

"You don't make any sense at _all, _idiot! If you don't want to involve yourself with me then why are yo-"

"I feel like I have no other choice, so deal with it." This time his tone had a certain edge to it, and she knew that what he was saying was most likely going to dominate. His voice was completely cold and final.

She even opened her mouth despite that, but he gave her the most threatening look she had ever received (and she had quite a few psycho guys in her group that could pull off a mean death glare).

Sakura glared furiously, fighting with herself mentally as to try and not start screaming. Her head felt like it was about to explode from trying to comprehend what was going through this guy's head!

She came to agreement that Uchiha Sasuke was not someone you could honestly win an argument with, even if he was the one in the wrong.

She closed her eyes and breathed.

_Calm down, Sakura. You're better than this._

With a small sigh, she re-opened her eyes and – with a whole lot of forced strength – willed herself to give up. "Hold on."

She disappeared into a corridor for a moment and then came back with two towels.

"Pink or purple?" She offered.

He stared at her blankly.

She sighed. "Oh come on. They're towels, man! Just take one for goodness sake."

"Hn." He made no move to grab one.

Sakura flailed the purple towel in front of his face for a bit, feeling that that was a manlier colour, but soon gave up, shrugging. "Suit yourself. You can freeze."

She wrapped herself in the pink towel and sat down on the lounge, then started to dry her hair with the purple. "Alright. Shoot."

Sasuke remained standing and closed his eyes, thinking of how he was going to explain all this. He didn't particularly want to explain a lot, but he had to explain enough so it would work. After a few silent moments, he began.

"I overheard that you needed someone to take care of your garden. By the look of things," He spared a glance out the window, where a tall, dying plant leant against it, blocking the majority of the outside view. "You weren't lying."

"Are you stalking me then?" Sakura inquired suspiciously.

"Stalking is a very forward word."

"Great," She muttered sarcastically. "It's always a pleasure to have a stalker in my house!"

"Actually, I saw you in the Pizzeria by chance and tried to talk to you outside, but I lost you in the crowd. Eventually I found your work."

Finding her work was a whole different story. He had replied to the text message Karin had sent him, though it really had nothing to do with getting her a kitty. It took him two hours to find out precisely where she worked. Then it took another hour to track down where _Kono Café _was and to actually get there.

To make matters worse, he couldn't let Karin find out that he was trying to find Sakura, so everything had to be done carefully and very subtly.

The first hour in texting Karin was trying to get her onto the topic of Sakura. The second hour was finding out where she worked.

And how much credit had he wasted? He had no idea because he was on a plan.

His father and mother probably forgot about it, but after the bill that they would be receiving, he assured himself that he wouldn't be able to text or ring from his phone any longer.

"Alright… so you want to be my gardener? I can't exactly pay you money. I can't even pay for things by myself, let alone give you money."

"Obviously. You're only, what? Sixteen?" Sasuke was starting to regret not taking one of the towels. He wanted to get dry and he was starting to get cold.

"Seventeen." She corrected flatly. "I don't think you're that much older."

He nodded slightly. "Seventeen."

"Then I don't see your point. I can't pay you for it, so there's no reason why you should want to be my gardener."

Sasuke pushed himself off of the wall and walked over. Finally, he snatched the purple towel from her hands, which earned him a disapproving "Hey!" and started drying himself off. "You can pay." He spared a glance over. "Just not with money."

Sakura stared at him for a long while, although Sasuke wasn't looking at her, so he had no clue that her face was starting to turn bright red.

In the window, her embarrassed features turned into that of entertained ones.

"I guess we were wrong!" Her reflection tittered gleefully, trying to hold back her obvious enjoyment of teasing her outer self. "He really is going to rape us!"

Sakura flashed a glare at the window. _'Shutup already!'_

She focused her attention back on Sasuke, who was now watching her idiosyncratic behaviour with an odd expression on his face.

"What?"

"You're blushing." He pointed out, pointing his finger at her face lazily.

"No, I'm actually just sunburnt."

He crinkled his nose up at her failed attempt at lying, and Sakura tried very hard not to grin. His expression was kind of cute.

_Kind of._

Not like OMGHE'SSOEFFINGCUTEOMGORGASMATTACK!$#^#&^%#%

Just _Kind _**of**.

Sakura couldn't stress the matter further.

Not even with her trusty italics, underlines and bolds.

"Right." He spoke, finally letting his expression go back to his usual. Blank.

Sakura looked away, silently praying that the blush would fade. "Well, anyway, what do you mean when you say I can pay without money?"

_Please not with my body, please not with my body…_

"You can pay in giving me a place to stay and food to eat. The worst I'll do is eat all of your tomatoes."

She smiled. So he did have human qualities besides being an asshole, and even better, he wasn't going to rape her! "You like tomatoes?"

He gave her a look but didn't reply.

"Well, I don't think that the lady helping me pay my bills will approve much. I don't really approve myself." She sighed irritably and stood up, starting to idly walk around the room, much to Sasuke's dismay.

He didn't like her walking around, because it made him start to watch her, going back and forth, back and forth, until she was actually pacing quickly and chewing her lower lip so much that he wondered when it would start to bleed.

She stopped suddenly.

"Why don't you stay at Karin's?"

He raised an eyebrow at her and then closed his eyes. "Hn."

"Too annoying?"

"Aa."

"She asked you to buy her a cat, didn't she?"

"…Aa."

"All her other boyfriends refused to buy her one and broke up with her… are you going to buy her one?"

"Hn."

"Cool. Going to break up with her?"

"Hn."

"What the hell happened to full sentences? You were speaking fine a moment ago!" Sakura exclaimed, resting her hands on her hips.

He opened his eyes, flashed a small smirk and then closed his eyes again.

And she was back to pacing.

After a few moments in silence, she stopped again, but turned to him this time.

"Oi, Uchiha."

Sasuke turned from the window he was currently looking out of and stared at her expectantly. Finally she had come to a conclusion.

"Give me my towel back." She ordered, one hand held out to catch it.

He almost slapped a hand on his forehead in disappointment, but threw the towel at her anyway. "Is that all?"

Sakura shook her head and disappeared for a moment with the towels. A few minutes later, she was back empty handed and the sound of a washing machine in another room was muffled through all of the walls in between the laundry and lounge room.

"I guess…" She started hesitantly, not bothering to sit down. "I guess you can stay."

He smirked triumphantly and stood up. Finally!

"But only for one night! Then I'll make my proper decision! And you have to stay on the couch." Sakura argued.

He sighed but nodded. At least he had a place to stay other than Karin's for one night.

"Tomorrow we'll determine if you're a good enough gardener or not. Depending on that and your attitude, I'll see if you can stay." She stretched and turned to look at his bags thoughtfully. "I'll get something for you to sleep in. I'll wash your clothes soon and put your bags out to dry in the morning."

"You're not going to give me some of your clothes, are you?" He snickered.

"Even though you'd look incredibly sexy in my clothes, Sasuke," She started, rolling her sea-foam green eyes. "I don't think so. I'm giving you my father's clothes."

"What a shame."

"I know. Anyway, you should have a shower. I'll get the bathroom prepared – I only use the one in my room so the one you're using doesn't really have anything in it – and then I will get you some clothes."

Sakura started to turn away, when she heard a low, inaudible grumble erupt from a certain person's stomach.

"And after that I'll make some food for inkle Sasuke." She teased, and starting to laugh, exited the room and made her way upstairs to grab her father's clothing.

His glare on her back when she left only made her laugh more.

* * *

After the outrageous events of the day, Sakura was becoming tired. She looked over at the digital clock on a table on the other side of the room.

9:02 PM flashed across the screen.

She sighed. It wasn't really even that late yet.

Standing up from her place in the lounge room, she snapped her book shut and walked over to set it back in the overflowing bookshelf.

It was a romance, her favourite romance book actually. This was her fifth time reading it – and it strangely never got old.

She liked realistic things. She didn't like fairytale happy endings anymore.

Happy endings were always what she had wanted, what she had thought existed.

Boy, was she wrong or what?

When she was twelve, she always followed boys around (in a kind of creepy manner) to try and get them to date her.

Sakura had been a fangirl. Even Ino used to be a fangirl.

They had made their own fan club of every guy they liked. Sometimes, it even resulted in the two best friends to fight over a guy (that they hadn't even talked to in most cases).

Sakura closed her eyes as she thought back. They had been so silly, without a care about the real world.

Chasing after boys, getting stickers on her completed homework every week, crying when she scraped her knee that time she went Rollerblading with Naruto and Ino – those memories seemed so far away to Sakura.

There were the good times and unfortunately the bad times, but she could always brush those little worries off after a call from Ino or Naruto.

Now that she was older, it was a little more complex than that.

Back then; she never really had a thought about her parents. Of what it would be like to have them. She had been with friends, and she had been happy.

She missed that.

Her eyes opened slowly and she suddenly smacked herself in the face.

"God! I'm so emo! SHUTUP SAKURA YOU BIG FOREHEADED DUMMY!" and she smacked herself again, and again, and again.

A hand clamped itself around her wrist and she looked up at its owner with a surprised expression.

Sasuke stood casually, clad in her father's slightly bigger white t-shirt and sweatpants. He was holding a tomato, which she assumed he had just taken from the kitchen. There was a big chunk missing from the side of it.

He raised an eyebrow. "Do you need medical help?"

She huffed and pulled her arm away. "No! I'm just yelling at myself! People do it all the time!"

"True," he agreed, taking another bite of the tomato. He chewed for a moment and finally swallowed. "When they're in the asylum."

"Buddy, you're not in my good books yet. If you want to stay here, you should be careful."

"Why be careful," he started, sinking down onto the couch. "When I know you like me and secretly want me to stay here?"

"Bah!" She spat. "You wish! I'm going to bed. Don't eat all of my tomatoes."

Sakura glared one last time before marching upstairs, making as much noise as possible.

Yeah, she was a drama queen. A childish drama queen.

But hey, she was offering an entire lounge room to some stuck up emo kid. She had every right to be a childish drama queen.

Especially if that emo kid hated, no, _despised_ noise.

As Sakura slammed her bedroom door shut, Sasuke's eye twitched for the fifth time in about thirty-two seconds.

She was already in her pyjamas so she looked around the room, not entirely feeling like sleeping yet.

Suddenly, she turned back and watched her door.

"I don't have a lock," Sakura murmured to herself thoughtfully and kept watching the door, trying to think of something to do.

It's not that she didn't trust Sasuke… she just… okay, she didn't trust him. At all.

So she stood there, staring at her door for god knows how long… (Ten minutes and twenty-six seconds) until she pumped her fist into her other hand and grinned.

"Ah-ha! Perfect!"

Sakura proceeded to pull a chair over and prop it underneath the door handle, so it was leaning against the door, two legs raised.

It was ingenious! And slightly cliché.

She shrugged and jumped onto her bed. She was exceptionally proud of herself for something that probably wasn't even worth being proud for, but she didn't care.

At least if Sasuke decided he wanted to annoy her, murder her or potentially take her cherry away, then he could say hello to her door that wouldn't open.

It would be so worth it to see an overgrown chicken man ram a door and not be able to make it crash down onto the floor.

She had an image of Sasuke turning into the hulk, beating his large fists against his chest and screaming, "YOU WON'T LIKE ME WHEN I'M ANGRY!"

Creepy.

But then that made her think of how strong he was.

She hoped the door would hold.

Sakura's mind started to swim, and it settled onto the memory of her being on the road.

He never actually said why he was angry, but she was just left to assume that it was because she was an idiotic person who didn't move out of harms way.

But honestly, why would he care?

Maybe it was just because he needed to stay in her house.

Maybe it was just because he wanted to cut off all of her hair and sell it on Ebay.

She liked the latter.

Her eyes wandered around the room again. There, they found a small cabinet, which her small TV rested on.

She didn't get very good reception in her room, and the shows were always fuzzy and making an annoying static sound, but it was good when she wanted some light and noise in her room. She wasn't so lonely with the loud, crackling sound of people talking and laughing and crying on soap operas.

But her eyes were watching the cabinet.

Slowly, she stood up and walked over. Crouching down, she opened the doors and pulled out the contents: Folders, stuffed animals, makeup, diaries, books, notes from school and much more.

Now that it was empty, you could plainly see the secret compartment at the bottom, which had been neatly hidden with the overflowing items.

Tenderly, she opened it up, where a tattered old book with a dusty red velvet case lay neglected.

She ran her hands over the front, dust picking up onto her fingers and a bit of the brighter red coming through.

Sakura stood up from her crouch and wiped her hand on her pyjama bottoms to get rid of the dust.

Sitting down on her bed, she sucked in a breath and blew at the front cover.

Dust flew everywhere, floating into her eyes, nose and mouth. She was blinded and having a coughing attack, rolling around on her bed.

"Stupid…" She rasped and sneezed. "Stupid book!"

She continued rolling, until she met the end of the bed and fell to the floor with a loud crash and an even louder cuss.

Then came a sneeze.

"Ow!" She whined, holding her head. "Why did I get you out of your hidey hole? You're so stupid!"

She groaned and sneezed again. "Or maybe I'm so stupid."

The door suddenly opened, the chair falling onto the floor.

Sasuke appeared from behind the half open door and closed it behind him. "Yep."

Sakura stood up quickly, infuriated that he foiled her ingenious plans. "Dude! You ruined my lock!"

"Your lock wouldn't keep out a toddler."

"My lock is better than your face!" She yelled, frowning. _Smooth._

"Ouch. Harsh. I'll retreat back to my couch now."

"Damn straight."

He turned to leave, but his eyes caught sight of the red book now lying on the floor beside her.

Nonchalantly, he walked over and picked it up.

"Diary?" He questioned her, running his fingertips over the markings.

"No! It's completely different to a stupid diary! Give it back!" Sakura stood up and reached for it, but to no avail.

He held it high above his head, pleased with how tall he was.

"Damn it!" She growled. She was so short! "Give my Friend log back!"

He raised a black eyebrow. "Friend log?"

"N-nothing!" She stammered and jumped up before he could look inside, snatching it right from his hands.

She instantly moved away from him and clutched it to her chest.

"Get out!" She yelled. "You don't want anything to do with me, remember? So move it! There's nothing to see here!"

He smirked and headed back to the door. "You get aggressive very easily." He noted out loud.

"Thanks Captain Obvious. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that you piss me off!"

"Your insults become less intelligent the madder you get."

"SHUT UP YOU… YOU… CHICKEN ASS!" She roared and threw the book at him.

Sasuke quickly slipped out of the room, starting to chuckle softly, and completely forgetting that she was mad, Sakura slumped down onto her bed and wondered how something so simple as chuckling could sound so brilliant.

* * *

Downstairs, not much later, a certain Uchiha sat on the couch of the living room, his lifeless obsidian eyes glued to the unusable fireplace.

However, his interest was not on the fireplace, but rather, the two picture frames in front of it.

* * *

Sunshine peeked into the bedroom through the slight parting of the green and pink curtains, where the sunlight splayed on the ground and on part of the bed.

A girl lay on top of the bed, still clad in the clothes she wore the day before and a book lay open on her stomach.

Her short pink hair sprayed out as far and messily as it could around the pillow and she curled up into a ball, shivering slightly for she was lying on top of the covers rather than underneath them.

She rolled over, her book falling onto the bed, and suddenly hissed in pain as she shot up into a sitting position.

Sakura looked over the room, her mind clouded by sleepiness. She looked over again, and then one more time, until she realised that she was in her room.

Looking down, she found what had caused her pain. She had been lying on top of a pen and it had stabbed into her stomach. Annoyed, she threw it off the bed, where it collided with the wall.

"Serves you right for attempting to murder my stomach." She muttered to herself and stood up, stretching.

Running a hand through her tussled hair, she looked over at her bedroom door and couldn't help but start to giggle to herself quietly.

The chair was placed back against the door, but it was now securely taped to it. The door handle was also taped so much that you couldn't even move it.

This is what happens when Haruno Sakura gets angry, she thought to herself.

"Now," she spoke to herself out loud, crossing her arms. "How am I going to get out?"

When no answer came from some intelligent being, (Even though she was the only one in the room apart from inanimate objects) she frowned.

Maybe she just wanted to be like Will from 'WITCH' and talk to psycho electrical appliances… but just with inanimate objects in general.

Finally, Sakura shrugged and glanced at the time. She had fourty-four minutes to get ready and make sure the depressed chicken was set.

Talk about stressful.

Gathering some clothes and undergarments, she walked into her bathroom ensuite quickly and hopped into the shower.

Ten minutes later, she was out, and sitting on the toilet lid, painting her nails and toenails green, still in a towel.

"Perfect!" She chirped and blew on her fingernails, her toenails already half dry. "Red is too formal for just going to school, and pink is boring to wear all the time… green is natural and cute!"

She paused for a second, cocking her head to the side.

"Wow, that was a seriously girly moment."

Sakura grinned and stood up, discarding the towel and throwing the School Uniform on. Walking out of the bathroom, she grabbed her red backpack and looked down at her bare feet and wiggled her toes thoughtfully, though partially admiring her freshly painted toenails.

Her shoes were downstairs.

She had two options; Bust down the door and pay for the damages, or climb out of the window without shoes on.

Sakura scratched her chin thoughtfully, and her eyes fell on the Friend log lying open on her bed.

She remembered writing about Sasuke – then nothing. She must have fallen asleep.

Quietly, she walked over and picked it up. Turning it over, she began to read the contents.

_Uchiha Sasuke,_

_He is the definition of EVILLLL! How is he not evil? He's going out of with Karin and he's eating ALL of my stinking TOMATOES!_

_Tomatoes aren't my FAVOURITE food in the world but I still eat them!_

_How dare heee!_

_Blah._

_The only time he talks is when he wants to prove that he's right, WHICH IS NEVER, since I happen to be awesomerer than him. Duh._

_And I wish my Inner Self would shut her stupid, beautiful face. Inner, WE ARE AWESOMER THAN HIM! DON'T ARGUE!_

_Anyway, Uchiha Sasuke. Right. I don't even know why I'm letting him stay here. He's probably pulling a prank on me from Karin, but he kind of doesn't seem to like her. What's up with that?_

_This may be a Friend log, but this is the start to… THE ENEMY LOG! DUN DUN DUN! I should put Karin in here next…_

_But yeah. There's nothing good about Uchiha Sasuke. At all._

_Apart from his arse. God._

_Arse of the devil who transformed into a super hot model. _

_I seriously don't like him._

"Oh my god," she gasped when she finished reading. "I need to scribble that last bit out… that's so completely not true… I must have been really tired last night…"

Sakura started to look around for the pen that she threw, poking her head under bed and desk and crawling around on the floor.

She sighed when the pen was nowhere to be found, and sat up whilst underneath her computer desk, smacking her head on the wood.

She yelped in pain and fell onto her back, where her eyes fell onto the fish clock on her wall.

"Shit."

She shot up, completely forgetting about finding the pen to scribble out the embarrassing arse confession and pulled on some socks she had grabbed from the dresser.

Making her decision quickly, she opened the window and climbed out carefully.

She had no money at all to fix the repairs if she broke the door down, and un-taping her door could take hours.

The tape had honestly seemed like a good idea at the time.

Taking a deep breath, she grabbed hold of a brick that was slightly sticking out, and started to lower herself down the wall slowly, sinking her nails into spots that she could hold on to.

She hissed when the corner of a brick cut into her sock and foot, but continued on anyway.

"Don't fall, don't fall," she kept chanting to herself quietly, carefully manoeuvring herself down the wall. It was lucky that she had muscle, or she probably would have fallen already.

Sakura sucked in a breath. She was moving far too slow.

Deciding that she should find out how far away from the ground she was, she tightened her grip on the cracks, which her fingers were currently holding on to, and found a place where her feet could temporarily stay.

Bravely, she inclined her head slightly to see how far she had to go.

The ground seemed to shrink further away from her once she looked at it, making it look like the gap between her and the ground was expanding.

She suddenly felt dizzy. She wasn't even halfway there yet!

She scolded herself for the stupid idea of climbing out the window and decided to go back the way she came.

Sakura lifted a foot up, trying to find a crack or a brick slightly sticking out to stand on. Using her arms, she started levering herself up higher to continue her search.

She groaned loudly, cursing. Climbing down was easier than climbing up.

She was clinging by a wall, with small cracks here and there to hold on to. Better yet, she was stuck practically in the middle, so there was no closer option. She was in a tight spot.

Her arms ached from the strain and her legs were hurting from being in the same position for too long. She was also hungry and her feet were probably bleeding all over her white socks.

Sighing, she continued her search for a place to rest her foot. Finally, she slipped a foot into a gap and started to pull herself up. A second too late, she realised that her foot was too big for the crack, and it slipped out.

Overcome with shock, her hands slipped and she was falling mid air.

'_First the car, and now this! How the hell do I get myself into these situations!_' was her immediate thought.

Her second was, _'Grab onto something and stop talking to yourself, you idiot!'_

Sakura didn't fall far, doing just as she told herself to do. Her hand grabbed onto the top of a brick, and her knees swung against the window as she stopped again, though not with enough force to break it.

Her legs dangled uselessly in mid air.

Inside the house, Uchiha Sasuke stared out of the window, his lips parted, ready to bite into the delicious, red vegetable he held. But it sat in his hand, unnoticed, for he was staring at the legs suspended in mid air.

Because that was completely normal.

Closing his mouth, he sat the tomato on the kitchen bench, and strode outside curiously.

He walked around to the outside of the window he had been standing at, and sure enough, there were legs outside of the window, but now he could see that they were attached to a girl.

A girl with conspicuous, vibrant pink hair.

He wondered who _that _could be.

"What are you doing?" He asked, leaning against the wall. He looked up at her through his dark bangs that were shielding his eyes from the sun.

Sakura squealed slightly in surprise and held on even more tightly. Glancing down, she glared at him. "Oh, you know! Just hanging around! What the hell do you think I'm doing?"

"Hanging around sums it up."

"Shut up and help me down!" She squeezed her eyes shut, afraid to look down anymore.

"Let go. You'll land in a bush."

"You're so cruel!" She screamed. "You could at least _attempt _to help! And if you haven't noticed, idiot, there are no bushes! Everything's dead!"

"Then you'll fall on the grass. Happy?"

"Why would anyone dangling from a wall be happy! Imbecile!" Sakura felt the need to slap her forehead in frustration, but that wouldn't be very logical in her current situation.

Sasuke smirked and ran a hand through his hair thoughtfully.

"Let's make a deal." He said imperatively. With things like this, Uchiha Sasuke did not ask questions.

"A deal?" She asked incredulously. "Are you mad? Have you not realised that I am practically HANGING BY BRICKS?"

He ignored her. The cards were in his hands now. "You agree to let me stay for as long as I need, I help you down."

"Oh you have got to be kidding me. That's foul play." She protested noisily.

Sasuke just remained silent, the smirk on his face never faltering.

She had no foothold. Her arms were aching so much from holding her body weight over a long period of time. Her fingers were bruised.

Sakura just wanted to break down and cry.

A finger slipped, and she desperately put it back on, only for another to fall off. The sun was higher in the sky by now, and she was sweating and struggling.

However, Sasuke still remained in his spot, not talking, not moving to try and help.

She started kicking her legs to find something for her socks to grasp on, but there was only the cool glass of the window.

Another finger slipped, and her arms were screaming in pain.

A whole hand fell, and her stubborn exterior faltered. "You can stay!"

In a flash, there was a tug from her legs and she was falling again. This time, an arm snaked its way around her waist, supporting her until it swiftly set her on the ground.

It was very quick, and for that split second she felt completely safe.

The arm was removed, and Sakura instantly collapsed onto the yellowing grass.

"Oh my… everything." She groaned, feeling the pain coursing through her.

"Welcome back to Earth. You are once again shorter than me."

She muffled something incoherent that rhymed with, 'Buck Foo'.

"Hey," Sasuke called, folding his arms. "You need to show me where all your gardening crap is."

She paused, and slowly, reluctantly, she rose from the ground. "I suppose. Follow me."

Sakura turned and walked into the house. Slipping her shoes on, she walked back out again and proceeded to walk around the house, while Sasuke followed along quietly.

Weeds, plants and trees grew in numbers the closer they got towards the backyard.

Sasuke wondered how a backyard could have gotten so out of control, but he was knocked out of his thoughts when they came to stop in front of a door.

"This is the shed." She explained, and opened the door. She walked in and flipped on the switch. It flickered briefly before lighting up the entire room.

"Okay well… I haven't really done this before so…" Sakura started.

"I expect that not many Seventeen year olds have." He deadpanned and walked inside. It was very small and crowded with objects.

There were spider webs in corners and dust was thickly coated along a table on the right side of the room.

The temperature in the room was also unusually cool.

She gave him a sour look and looked over the room. "Well first, you can start by cleaning this up."

"I came here to be a gardener, not a cleaner."

"If you want to be a gardener, you need to organize your crap first!" She argued, feeling partially embarrassed that she hadn't cleaned it up herself.

"Hn."

"Anyway, it'll be messy, so you should probably put on my dad's old overalls. They should fit you, if not a little big."

Sasuke crinkled his nose up again, and she tried very hard not to giggle.

"Oh come on. Let's go."

It took a whole lot of effort to get him into the house again.

She asked him nicely, she argued, she yelled, she ignored him, then she did the smart thing – she used her strength.

"GET YOUR ARSE INTO THAT HOUSE MAN!" With an arm wrapped around his neck, she dragged him into the house and upstairs.

Sasuke had put up a good fight, flipping her over the top of him about three times, and _accidentally _kicking her in the chest once (to which she cried, "MY CHESTICLES!"), but he wasn't the kind of person to hit women unless it was necessary, so he went a little easy on her, even if her strength could make the biggest pimp in the world cry.

Though Sasuke was no pimp. He was just a good-looking guy with a bad temper whom happened to have a fetish for tomatoes.

Sakura dragged him into her parent's room and started looking through the closets.

Under normal circumstances, by no means would she let anyone apart from herself into her parent's room – but she didn't want to have to go running after the idiot if he escaped, so she brought him along with her.

He was a lifeless fruitcake anyway, so he wouldn't really care or ask about her parents, which she was relieved about.

Honestly, she didn't feel like talking about it.

After a moment's searching, she finally found them. She had never washed them, had never had the heart to – oddly, it still smelled of her father, and there was a tug at her heart that told her to not give it to Sasuke, for he would change the smell with his own.

However, she knew that she was being selfish and handed them over.

"Don't destroy them." She warned, eyebrows knitted.

He replied with an, "Aa." And started to pull on the overalls over his clothes.

When he was done, he looked down at himself, dissatisfied with what he was wearing.

Sakura, on the other hand, was completely flabbergasted at how he _still _managed to look attractive even in something a few sizes too large, and a few years out of style.

"This isn't going to do," he grunted.

"You're going to be working in a shed for Petes sake!"

"Hn." Sasuke slipped the straps down his arms, shrugging them off completely. He then proceeded to roll the torso of the overalls down until they sat at his waist.

"You just look like a fool now. What does doing that even-" Sakura started but was cut off.

The shirt that Sasuke _had _been wearing underneath the overalls lay crumpled on the floor, and he stared at her, bare at the torso.

"Done." He stated, his tone monotonous.

Unknown to him, Sakura's hormones were raging like a PMSing pregnant woman craving for chocolate and ice cream.

"Okay then." She replied dumbly, and slumped out, trying to not seem interested.

The both walked out of the house in a partially awkward silence, and they stopped as the sun hit them both.

They turned around and looked back at the house.

Sasuke had his arms folded across his chest, leaning back on his heels and looking relaxed.

Sakura stood straight, her arms behind her back and hands clasped together. Her expression was calm.

"Well?" She asked, and turned her head to him slightly. "What do you think of the garden so far?"

"It's magical." He said dryly.

"Well, what did you expect? A fairytale garden?"

"Sure. That's why you asked me to be here. You wanted me to be the prince."

"Prince of the hedges." She mumbled inaudibly.

His eyebrows rose, and he turned to her. "Hn?"

"Nothing." She said quickly and started walking around to the back again.

He followed her, his pace fast but not rushed. He made no sound as he walked.

In an instant, he was in front of her, and she gasped, surprised that he had been so close because she had not heard him approach.

Sasuke smirked. "Prince of the hedges?"

She sighed. "It just popped into my mind! I just imagined you as a prince with that big ego of yours, and then I imagined you as a gardener too… and then, wah-lah! Prince of the hedges."

"You don't have any hedges." He pointed out.

Sakura paused. Then she glared at him and looked away.

"It sounded good in my head! Maybe I'll just rename you Prince of the weeds!"

"Please don't."

They both had started to walk around towards the shed again as they argued, and they had just re-entered the run-down, crowded space.

"What about Prince of the trees?"

"I'm not a hippy. I don't care what happens to trees."

"Prince of the belladonna!" She exclaimed.

"Deadly." He commented casually, running a finger across the dusty table. When he pulled it back, it was dirty and brown with dust.

"On second thought, I take that back."

He rolled his eyes and turned to her. "Then what?"

"I've got it! Prince of the big, fat, stupid, egotistical bastards who stalk people!"

"How original." Sasuke grunted. He then looked at her, and his eyes found her uniform. "Don't you have an educational facility you are meant to attend on weekdays?"

Sakura stared at him long and hard. Her lips were set in a thin, tight line.

How had she forgotten?

Finally, she asked, "what time is it?"

Sasuke pulled out his phone and pressed a button to make the screen light up. "It's eleven past ten."

Never in her life, _ever,_ had Haruno Sakura been late to school before, and _man _was Tsunade going to be _P I S S E D. _Her friends, too, would have been worried. Sakura never missed a day of school, and suddenly not turning up one random day would worry them. But she was confused.

They hadn't called or messaged her.

After a few moments, Sakura then realised that her phone was in her bag.

She let her bag drop from her back and opened the front compartment, searching through all of her equipment until she finally found it.

Pulling it out, Sakura was met with five missed calls, thirteen messages and #_101# _had kindly told her that she had four voice messages.

In just a matter of a few hours, her life had taken a dramatic turn by one person, and as she looked through her pink bangs at him, taking in his hair, his face, his body, his personality, she wondered quietly if anything good – _anything _good at all – could come from said person.

He was like baking chocolate. At first, it looks sweet and tasty like any chocolate does and you try it out. Once it's actually in your mouth, you can taste the bitter taste come through.

Sakura had seen him as an attractive man (and an enemy because of Karin). In the less than twenty-four hours she had been with him, the after taste had struck. He wasn't sweet – he was cold and bitter.

Sasuke, simply, in two words, was bitter chocolate.

* * *

Fuck. So glad this is done.

Anyway, this is… almost 23 pages long. One full page was dedicated to the authors note so almost 22 pages.

Let's see… I tried to make Sakura in character as possible, same with Sasuke. I know Sakura is agro towards him. But it makes sense. She only really liked his ability and looks when she first met him. So right now, she only likes his looks – and even THAT frustrates her.

Yes, I put the Story name in here. I just felt like doing it. I also have no idea what the reference to Baking chocolate was about. Maybe I'm hungry.

And yes, I only made Sasuke wear overalls just so he could discard the top half. I'm sure some of you Sasuke-fangirls out there enjoyed that.

Uhhh… man… wtf… it's 3:03 AM. When the hell did THAT happen?

I still have to upload this shit.

Raggle fraggle.

Anyway I love you guys, and I'm very sorry. I'm sorry if I've lost fans for my lack of updating. It can't be helped.

I know I should talk about more stuff in it, but I am so dead. I need to upload this and sleep.

Please read and review (AKA give constructive criticism if you have any).


	5. A MUCH happier Authors Note!

Hi guys, VermilionTampon here.

IIIII'M BAAAAAAAAAACK!

Not just to write a crappy little Author's Note like before (I deleted that by the way) but back to continue this story! The simplistic way, how I originally intended it to be and not the more detailed plot line.

It's taken me a very long time to get back on track, but school's now over for the year and I can breathe a little bit easier.

I realised I was an idiot for attempting to change the story so POTH will run as normally. As soon as I post this I will be starting the next chapter. I hope you guys will enjoy that!

I can't say this was all done on my own though, for me to change my mind. I give practically all the credit to: halfkyuubikat. After reading my first Author's note she sent a wonderful review that seriously inspired me to continue this story. So here I am.

I definitely think people should go check out her stories if spare time is on your hands :D.

I also deleted all information about the "extended plotline" in other chapters so if you don't see it and you're confused, then that's why. **DELETED**.

Anyway, I dunno when I'll be posting the next chapter up – hopefully it'll be soon. I've lost my mojo but I feel as if it's back now which is now why I'm posting this Authors note.

I hope to see all my old reviewers… er, reviewing in later chapters!

Tooooodleeoooooooooooooooooo chickens. MEOW.


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